Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-07-02
DISCOVER ANCIENTS
HAD ACHING TEETH.
Doctors, Exhuming Egyptian
Munmies, Find MoIars Com
pletely Gone.

This is an age Of specialism. Some
doctors limit their practise to babies,
some to old persons, some to a single
class of disease. Only recently has
any doctor attempted to specialize on
the diseases of mummies. In a recent
issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association appears an inter-
esting account of the work of Dr.
Ruffer in the examination of a large
number of recently discovered num-
mics in Egypt. The conditions of Gus
tom and climate which have pre-
served the mummies of old Egypt
make ii possible to compare the de-
fects produced by disease with the
manifestations of diseases of the pres
emit day. Such investigations have
already unfolded many facts of inter
est In respect to the existence of dis
eases in bygone times and have con-
tributed important facts to the history
OF medicine.
The perfect preservation of many of
the bodies which have become avail
able in Egypt is remarkable. The
peculiarities of real mummies are
widely known. Coptic bodies which
have recently been examined by
Ruffer belong to a somewhat differ
ent class. They came from Antinoe,
in upper Egypt. and dated from the
fifth to sixth century. They were,
therefore, from about 1.400 to 1900
years old. They had undergone no
artificial process except that, at one
time, they had been covered with
salt. The real preservative had been
the dry Egyptian sand in which they
had originally been buried enclosed in
wooden collins. Never having been
disturbed by the embalmer, the or
gans were all in position, and the
bodies contained no resin, gum or any
materials, such as mud, sand. rags,
ETC.. generally used in old Egypt for
packing the body after removal of
the organs.
In our environment where special
precautions are necessary to pre-
serve the body from decay, it is sur
prising to hear of microscopic Sec
tons from these bodies made $500
years after death to show the minute
structures of the glands in a remark
ably fine state of preservation, or to
learn that the lobes of the brain and
some of the convolutions were rec
ognizable and that the fibers and
valves of the heart could be made
out. Ruffer points out the occurrence
of tubercular disease Of the spine
among ancient Copts as one more
proof that the disease had existed
from the remotest times and is in
dependent of climate. 1t has been
found in bodies buried close to the
Mediterranean shores, in bodies from
upper Egypt and Nubia, and even
in skeleton buried in the tropics
at Merawi, one of the hottest and
dryest places in the world Judging
from two cases of enlarged spleen
which were found in Coptic bodies,
Ruffer ventures the suggestion that
these people suffered from malaria.
Pyorrhea appears to be as old as
the human race. Evidence of sucn
disease has been found in prehis-
from almost all nationalities. Ruffer
has found nothing to suggest that
the Copts knew anything about dem
tistry The long recognized bad state
of the teeth of ancient Egyptians is
again emphasized in the Coptic
bodies. Almost every skull has some
serious dental defect. 1t is suggest
ed that this may perhaps be account
ed for by the fact that very little
care of the teeth appears to have
been taken. The thick incrustations
Of tartar are sufficient evidence that
the Copts did not clean their teeth
at all In many peoples and animals
the absence of the tooth brush is
compensated for by the fact that the
food is hard, fibrous and raw, re-
quiring a good deal of chewing, which
mechanically cleans the teeth. In
ancient Coptic times this does not
appear to have been the case. Ruffer
concludes that the Copts of Antinoe
lived chiefly on cooked soft food,
cfewed without effort. Decay of the
teeth was extremely common and
was possibly due to the nature OF
the food consumed.