HISTORY OF ANEURYSMS

Abstract

IN the fourteenth century B.C. the Egyptians, according to Sigerist (95I)., treated aneurysms by magico-religious therapies, but the nature and site of occurrence of these lesions are not mentioned nor the term applied to them. Ruffer (I9iI) claimed that arterial degenerative diseases were prevalent amongst the Egyptians, so aneurysms of the aorta almost certainly occurred, though no reference to them has been found. Major (1954, P. 5I), quoting Ebbell, lists aneurysm and arteriovenous aneurysm amongst the diseases des- cribed in the Ebers Papyrus. The religious fears of the Egyptian embalmers seems to have been greater than their curiosity in the vast quantity of patho- logical material theyhandled, as Long (I933) suggests, for the diseases mentioned were primarily those discernible on external examination of the body.