With the dawn of the Renaissance, medicine would finally purge itself of its past supernatural foundation. Although Hippocrates teachings were recognized by some scholars during the Middle Ages, they did not make up the basis for mainstream medical knowledge. As Europe entered the Dark Ages, so did medicine yet again, reverting to spells and prayers instead of judgment and reason. It is believed that the ancient Greeks had knowledge of the contents of the Edwin Smith Papyrus and its teachings and used them as the basis for their writings. when Hippocrates and his disciples in ancient Greece would once again revive logic in medical thinking and teaching. As Egyptian civilization declined during the next millennium, the teachings of the Papyrus would be lost. The Edwin Smith Papyrus cast aside the prevailing magic and mysticism of that time in favor of logic and deductive reasoning. Although in modern medicine we take for granted that the use of physical examination and rational thinking lead to an accurate conclusion, 5,000 years ago, this was extraordinary. The text instructs the physician to examine the patient and look for revealing physical signs that may indicate the outcome of the injury. The Papyrus is divided into 48 cases, most of which describe traumatic injuries. The surviving scroll, a copy of an earlier text from around 3,000 B.C., gives us remarkable insight into the medical practice of ancient Egyptians in the Nile River bed during the dawn of civilization. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, discovered in 1862 outside of Luxor, Egypt, is the oldest known surgical text in the history of civilization.
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