The Washington herald., 1922-02-11
DIAGNOSE Ills
OF EGYPTIANS
1000 YEARSOLD
Prehistoric Dinosaur Had
Pathologic Lessons
On His Tail.
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY %. 49,.

SATURDAY. FEBRUARY %, Is-s.
subject OF the meeting of the
Philosophical Society Of Washing.
ton. Cosmos Club. tonight. q
O'Clock. ''Purification Of Certain
Elements Of the Platinum Groun"
by Edward wickers: "Thermo-
Electro Tests for Purity Of Met
ais" by c. o. Fsirchild: Spec
troscopic Tests for Purity Of some
Metals" by w. =. Meggers. ali
speakers from the Bureau Of
Standards.
Present-day post-mortems OF hu-
man beings who lived 1000 years
ago and examinations Of cave bears
and a crocodile who basked in the
sun some 100000 years ago have re-
vealed the medical aches and pains
Of those times.
Bones of ancient life have pre-
vioUsly given medical clues to scien-
lists Of today, but the late Sir Ar
mand Ruffer devised methods of
| studying the soft tissues Of the
Egyptian mummies that the hot
sands and dry climate OF Egypt have
preserved for thousands Of years.
The bacteria, the diseases, and
mans reaction TO them have not
changed during the thousands OF
years that have passed. he found.
The Inhabitants Of the Nile VAL
ley. the cradle Of history. suffered
from stffening and swellings Of the
joints TO a far greater degree and at
a much earlier age than We now see
this disease. A humpbacked priest
OF Ammon. 1000 years b. c. owed
his hump to Potts disease. which
shows how little 5000 years have
altered the behavior Of tuberculosis
Bacteria in these old bodies can still
be stained. and traces Of pneumonia
can be seen. Lessons closely re-
sembling smallpox can still be rec
ognized and studied by modern mi
croscopic methods in these old
mummies. Hardening OF the arter.
les was common and severe in those
days. when tobacco. excessive meat
eating. modern strenuosity. and such
things that nowadays are blaTncf
for this condition certainly did not
exist.
Men were commonly stifT and old
by the time they had reached 81
years. and the good old days were
not so good from tae sanitation
standpoint" says the journal Of tho
American Medical Association %
commenting on Dr. Ruffer's late
work. "snd We find that royalty wa;
OF very common clay, with eN.
tremely bad teeth and gums. queen,
bald Of head. and even. we blush q
saw it princesses with nits in thei,
, hair. Syphilis has not yet beer
demonstrated in early Egyptiar
bodies. a fact which may have In.
nuenced the sociology OF thhe day
Food habits varied from time {,
time and in different classes. a.
shown by the degree of wearing
down of the teeth. nut at no tim
did there exist those prehIstoric
dentists Of whom all popular his
tories Of Egypt relate. although
they certainly were sorely needed
The best mummy material op-
; tained is that which - naturally
preserved by the Egyptian climate
The Egyptian embalmers had nd
such supernatural skill as tradition
ascribes 20 them. but they did Re.
move the vital organs OF the body
before burial. much TO the sorrow
OF present medical archeologistS.
4 Even the illnesses or the dino
saur. who lived many thousands ot
/! years before the Egyptians. hay.
been investigated Prof. Roy /
Noodle. OF the University of Cbil
cago. has found patholoCic lesionI
on the tail Of this prehistoric rrepI
tile