Fine Minds

Fine Music Radio — 'The Practice of Medicine in the Ancient Egypt' by Professor Ian Aaronson Professor Ian Aaronson, distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Medical University of South Carolina and one of the University of Cape Town’s most popular Summer School lecturers, will deliver the fourth lecture in the Fine Minds series, a collaboration between FMR and UCT’s Centre for Extra-Mural Studies. It will cover the contribution to modern Western medicine made by the priests, magicians and practical healers who practised healing in ancient Egypt. Thousands of years ago, the forerunners of today’s doctors had some anatomical knowledge as well as access to a massive pharmacopoeia of drugs. Some of the prescribed cures, such as honey, have proven medicinal uses, whereas others – such as crocodile dung used as a contraceptive – might have done more harm than good. Fine Minds has been made possible by a grant from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.