Pain has been a companion of life since before our species existed, and it serves as an important warning in case of injuries or disease. Although pain causes various physiological changes, it is really the conscious perception of pain, particularly when prolonged, that makes life miserable, even unbearable. People have long sought ways to reduce its impact. This two part essay explores the ancient Egyptian understanding of pain, its perceived causes, and the diverse methods the ancient Egyptians employed to alleviate it, and points out the correlation between ancient and modern therapies.
Pain can come from a variety of sources. Of course, trauma and burns cause tissue damage, which can directly activate pain nerves. Another cause of pain is inflammation, which is the body’s reaction to diseases, infections, or even later stages of trauma. Inflammation has five hallmark symptoms, which are still taught in medical schools: rubor, calor, dolor, tumor, and functio laesa (redness, warmth, pain, swelling, and loss of function). Although Celsus in the 2nd century AD is given credit for recognising the hallmarks of inflammation, the Egyptians did so a millennium and a half earlier. The cardinal symptoms were called out in all the major medical papyri, and the collective term šsm.wt or srf.t was used to describe it. The Egyptian approach to treating painful inflammation was to ‘draw the heat out’.
We now know that pain travels along specific bio-chemical and neuronal pathways from injured tissue to conscious perception. Modern medicine can block pain at multiple points along this pathway. Of course, the ancient Egyptians were not aware of this physiology, but they did make use of ways to block pain at several points of these pathways. The Egyptian beliefs regarding non-traumatic pain involved three possible mechanisms: a blockage of the metu (mtw) channels; imbalance of bodily humours (blood, bile, tears, semen, and so on); and spiritual invasion by demons. Metu channels were a central concept in Egyptian medicine, as laid out in the Ebers medical papyrus in Formula 854. Many kinds of anatomically tubular structures in the body, such as arteries, veins, lymphatics, nerves, bronchi, and even tendons were considered metu. Metu emanated from the heart, and carried fluids and spiritual energy around the body.
