![]() ![]() Thoma led the technical efforts and team at NLM. "The technical challenges of digitally transforming and making this scroll available on a personal computer were enormous," said George Thoma, PhD, chief of the Communications Engineering Branch at Lister Hill Center at NLM. "This papyrus is unlike most other medical papyri in that it is chiefly rational and does not usually bring the supernatural into the explanations or treatments for injuries-for instance, there is only one incantation," said Michael North, curator of the project and of rare books in the History of Medicine Division at NLM.įortunately for potential viewers of the scroll, the computer scientists at NLM also relied on sound scientific principles rather than magic to devise a system that allows the unfurling of the scroll on a computer. Each case is laid out using a carefully prescribed formula: a description of the injury diagnosis prognosis treatment and further explanations of the case, which resemble footnotes. The text is a treatise on trauma surgery and consists of 48 cases dealing with wounds and trauma. Lindberg, MD, "because it showed for the first time that Egyptians had a scientific understanding of traumatic injuries based on observable anatomy rather than relying on magic or potions." "The Smith Papyrus is extremely important," added NLM Director Donald A.B. "We are delighted to collaborate with NLM in bringing the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus to a much wider audience and the use of interactive technology will allow researchers and the public to explore the document more deeply," said Academy President Jo Ivey Boufford, MD. Allen, formerly of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and high-resolution scans lent by the scroll's owner, the New York Academy of Medicine. This collaborative online representation features an important new translation by James P. The Smith Papyrus was written in Egyptian hieratic script around the 17 th century BCE but probably based on material from a thousand years earlier. ![]() The new offering is at ///proj/ttp/flash/smith/smith.html. Now, users can journey back to pre-book times and "unroll the scroll" or, more specifically, the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the world's oldest known surgical document. It's a novel twist on the popular NLM online system, Turning The Pages, which allows you to turn the pages of a rare book on your computer screen. History and high-tech merge in a new offering from the National Library of Medicine ® (NLM ®), the world's largest medical library and an arm of the National Institutes of Health. Papyrus On Virtually Any Computer, Anywhere NLM "Turning The Pages" Lets Users Explore Egyptian Medical Ma An Ancient Medical Treasure at Your Fingertips
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