A ssyrian Medical Texts

Abstract

THE specimens of Assyrian medical texts which Mr. Campbell Thompson has translated are derived from Ashurbanapal's library of clay tablets, which was discovered in 1849 by Sir Austin Henry Layard during excavations at the mound Kouyunjik, near the site of Nineveh. Of the 80,000 fragments of the clay tablets that have found their way to the British Museum, it has been estimated that at least 800 consist of medical texts. The present pamphlet contains texts dealing with diseases of the head and diseases of the eyes only, which clearly illustrate the peculiar features of Assyrian medicine, especially the belief that disease is due to demoniac possession. In consequence of this, incantations and magic rites are interspersed with the remedies, many of which may be traced back to at least 2000 B.C. In some of the texts, incantations and magic rites play the most prominent part, while in others they are only of secondary importance. Although other methods of treatment, such as diet, rest, and massage, were not unknown, the principal part in Assyrian therapeutics was taken by drugs, derived first from plants, trees, and shrubs, of which the roots, twigs, leaves, sap, and seeds were employed; secondly, from mineral substances, including various alkalis and salts; and thirdly, from various stones, which were crushed and used as ingredients in concoctions and particularly in ointments and salves. Concurrently with remedies likely to be beneficial to the patient, nauseous and foul-smelling substances such as human and animal excrement were employed with the object of driving out the demon, a practice frequently resorted to in the Middle Ages. Certain ceremonials were also carried out, such as the tying of knots in a cord to symbolise imprisonment of the demon after the disease had been expelled from the body. The study of these texts is of interest not only on their own account, but also because they show the influence of Assyrian medicine on the medicine of the Jews, in which the idea of demoniac possession in disease, incantations, and magic rites played so important a part.

A ssyrian Medical Texts.

R. Campbell

Thompson

By. (Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1924, vol. xvi. Section of the History of Medicine.) Pp. 34. (London: John Bale, Sons and Danielsson, Ltd., 1924.) 2s. 6d. net.