Histoire des sciences médicales
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Historical Article
[When the Egyptian mummies are speaking about the infections that have made them ill].
The microbiological study of mummies has started in 1910 when Sir M. A. Ruffer first applied the histologic methods to the study of mummified tissues and found Schistosoma haematobium ovas dated from the XXth dynasty. ⋯ The recent introduction of molecular methods (PCR) allowed t confirm the high prevalence of helminth diseases and tuberculosis among these populations, but also added new data exemplified by the widespread distribution of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. In addition, cases of bacterial septicemias and diphteria possibily occurred. Thousands of human and animal mummies remain to be studied with the hope to discover another pathogens responsible for viral or zoonotic infections prevalent during the pharaons' times.
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Two papyri are very interesting for Medicine history of the Antiquity. The first one (a Greek papyrus prolifically illustrated between 100 B. ⋯ D.) reveals the value of the illustrators of works in the Greek and Roman period and the second (the famous papyrus of Milan 300 B. C.) includes a part about the epigrams of curing.