Imhotep is, however, never mentioned in the writing of Manetho. This work has been lost, but fragments have been preserved in other works from the 4th century AD and later. ![]() Today, the modern literature identifying Imhotep as a doctor is also highly influenced by a translation of Waddell of the Aegyptiaca, a history of Egypt in Greek, written two and a half millennia after Imhotep by the Egyptian priest Manetho in the late 3rd century BC. It might be added that over time his abilities in magic, alchemy, astronomy, and astrology also increase considerably. ĭuring Ptolemaic times we see the effects of an unclear delineation between the man and the god of medicine, and during later periods we meet the man Imhotep (even though often hardly identifiable with the original one) in many sources, for example, in the Greek Hermetic literature, where he now is identified as the first inventor of medicine. However, over time the medical aspect becomes more and more pronounced and the Greeks identified him with Asclepius, and it seems likely that this identification with Asclepius did further enhance the medical aspect of Imhotep, and that cult reached its climax during the Roman period. The earliest health-related reference is as late as the 30th dynasty (4th century BC), where he appears as a divine healer. The divine field of Imhotep was not limited to medicine, but he was initially consulted by his adherers in a manner similar to other gods. His rise to divinity and the first temples in his hounour occured around the 26th dynasty. Later, in the 18th dynasty, he seems to have achieved a semidivine status, especially among scribes, and small statues of him as a scribe become popular. We have a reference to the chief lector-priest of Djoser, likely to be identical with Imhotep, in one of the stories in the Westcar papyrus, dated to the Second Intermediate period. The sources remain scarce for a long period, but he is mentioned as a wise man in a song from the New Kingdom, which is sometimes supposed to stem from the Middle Kingdom. ![]() There are only few, very short inscriptions regarding Imhotep that are close in time, and none of these suggests that he was a physician or had any medical knowledge. We first meet the person Imhotep in the beginning of the Old Kingdom (27th century BC) as the chancellor of Djoser and supposed architect behind the first pyramid. The sources have been thoroughly evaluated by Sethe and later in great detail by Wildung. Unfortunately, this identification is mostly based on the romantic allure of the idea itself and has very little to do with historical facts. Herbowski is not the first enthusiastic doctor, with all likelihood not the last, to identify Imhotep as the origin behind the Edwin-Smith papyrus. The description of the discovery was found in The Papyrus of Smith of 1600 B.C.”. ![]() Taking into consideration the content of The Papyrus of Smith, Imhotep can be fairly believed to be the very first discoverer of cerebrospinal fluid,” and in the conclusions the author writes “ The Egyptian physician Imhotep is the most likely to be the first one to discover intracranial cerebrospinal fluid in vivo in 3000 B.C. ![]() It is correct that the Edwin-Smith papyrus mentions what seems to be CSF, but the author takes this a step longer and attributes the discovery to Imhotep, writing “ there are enough necessary prerequisites to giving full credit to Imhotep for discovery of cerebrospinal fluid. There is, however, an unfortunate assumption regarding the Egyptian origin of the discovery of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). I would like to thank the author for his commendable desire to contribute to the history of this area. I read with interest the paper by Herbowski.
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