One of the best-known examples of corpse medicine might derive from an error in translation. Warren Dawson - in a paper published in 1927 that remains worth reading - notes that ancient healers created considerable demand for the various types of Middle Eastern bitumen. Ancient Greeks, for example, used Babylonian bitumen to treat cataracts, leprosy and itch, and several other eye and skin diseases. Medicines containing bitumen also, they believed, alleviated gout and, taken with wine, cured coughs, shortness of breath, dysentery, rheumatism and various other ailments.
The Persian word for wax, which encompassed bitumen, is Mumia. Arabs adopted the word, which they mistakenly applied to the concoctions of resins Ancient Egyptians used to embalm their dead (see Dr Bridget McDermott's article 'Food of the Gods' in issue 50). We derived the term 'mummy' from Mumia. In turn, the medical properties associated with Mumia transferred to mummies. Ground- up mummy corpses began Pharmacist on the shelves in various formulations, including ointments and molasses appear.
The consumption of powder Egyptian mummies as treatment of many diseases, poisoning, including broken bones, was in Europe, usually between 12 "'and 17th century. The tradition continued in some places even more. It was like mummies Egyptian replaced scare traders naturally mummified corpses and body parts to be treated are similar to the recently deceased Egyptian prototype.(It 's possible that the two were Benton gathering material for this trade.)
Over time, the term "mummy" less than a bituminous or resinous preparation of an Egyptian mummified corpse and more than a tissue of the body.
The reason alleged Mummy - Original Mumia - made way for the flesh, that is, with the flesh of a dead body.
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