PRE-ALEXANDRIAN ANATOMY-1000 TO 300 B.C. 39 



of the organs and a deity, which had a life of its own, was identi- 

 fied with each. There were over 100 anatomical terms in the 

 Egyptian language of this period. It began largely as a mytho- 

 logical anatomy, of which traces still exist in terminology; e.g., the 

 word. Atlas, which refers to the first cervical vertebra. 



The human body was regarded as a microcosm reflecting the 

 macrocosm, or universe. The morphological parts were able to 

 wander around the body at will; they had appetites, whims and 

 moods which had to be pacified and satisfied (Sigerist, '51). Or- 

 gans were also divided into good and evil, most of them being 

 in the latter category; only the heart and kidney were judged 

 to be untainted and were the two left within the mummified 

 body; the others were removed or destroyed with chemicals while 

 they were in situ. The Egyptian considered the heart to be the 

 most important, serving as the center of the vascular system and 

 the seat of intelligence and all emotions. However, he was unable 

 to differentiate, between arteries, veins, nerves and muscles. 



One of the greatest fears the Egyptian embalmer had to over- 

 come was the mere opening of the abdomen. He tried to negate 

 the displeasure of his particular gods by hiring a scapegoat, in 

 the form of an old, depraved man, to make the incision with a 

 sharp stone; the use of iron was not permitted because of a stigma 

 attached to its use. Once the cut was made sufficiently, the man em- 

 ployed for the occasion ran off as fast as feeble legs would carry 

 him. During his escape, the undertakers hurled rocks at him, to 

 demonstrate to the deities, that they were righteous and disap- 

 proved of the mutilation of the corpse. The practice of mummi- 

 fication reached its height about 700 B.C. 



In the final analysis, Sigerist ('51) states that probably more 

 was learned about anatomy in the kitchen or cult than from 

 observations made in the embalming procedure in Egypt. To 

 give credit where it is due, however, it must be admitted that 

 the art of mummification was instrumental in reconciling the 

 popular mind for the following twenty centuries to the idea of 

 incising the human body. This custom made it possible for a num- 

 ber of outstanding Greeks to openly and systematically study the 

 human body later in Alexandria, a privilege that was denied to 

 them in their own country because of religious and public odium. 



