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Review
. 2013 Dec 30;2013(4):395-404.
doi: 10.5339/gcsp.2013.47. eCollection 2013.

Ancient Alexandria and the dawn of medical science

Ismail Serageldin  1
Affiliations
Review

Ancient Alexandria and the dawn of medical science

Ismail Serageldin. Glob Cardiol Sci Pract. .
No abstract available

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The Edwin Smith papyrus, the world's oldest surviving surgical document. Written in hieratic script in ancient Egypt around 1600 B.C., the text describes anatomical observations and the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of 48 types of medical problems in exquisite detail. Plate 6 and 7 of the papyrus, pictured here, discuss facial trauma. Reproduced under a US Public Domain license. Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edwin_Smith_Papyrus_v2.jpg.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Ebers Papyrus by Einsamer Schütze derivative work via Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APEbers_c41-bc.jpg.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Artistic rendering of the Library of Alexandria, based on some archaeological evidence. Reproduced under a US public domain license, via Wikimedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancientlibraryalex.jpg.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Galen of Pergamon (Claudius Galenus, or in French, Claude Galien), the most famous medical researcher of classical antiquity. Lithograph by Pierre Roche Vigneron. (Paris: Lithograph by Gregoire et Deneux, ca. 1865). Reproduced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Galen_detail.jpg.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Galen. De pulsibus. (Manuscript; Venice, ca. 1550). This Greek manuscript of Galen's treatise on the pulse is interleaved with a Latin translation. Reproduced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greek_doc01.jpg.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
The modern-day Bibliotheca Alexandrina from the Mediterranean side. Reproduced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CW_BibliotechaAlexandrina_Front.jpg – with thanks to Carsten Whimster.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

Bibliography

Lexical Works:
    1. Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
    1. The Cambridge Ancient History. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
    1. Der Kleine Pauly: Lexikon der Antike. Edited by Konrat Ziegler and Walther Sontheimer. 5 vols. München: Deutscher Taschenbuch, 1979.
    1. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Edited by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
    1. Real-Encyclopädie der classischen altertumswissenschaft. Edited by A. Pauly, G. Wissowa, and W. Kroll. Stuttgart: Verlag J.B. Metzler, 1962.
General Works:
    1. Clagett, Marshall. Greek Science in Antiquity. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2001.
    1. Cumston, C.G. The History of Medicine: From the Time of the Pharaohs to the End of the XVIIIth Century. London: Routledge, 1998.
    1. Fraser, P.M. Ptolemaic Alexandria. 3 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001.
    1. Gill, Christopher, Tim Whitmarsh, and John Wilkins, eds. Galen and the World of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
    1. Glanville, S.R.K., ed. The Legacy of Egypt. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.

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