Studies in palaeopathology in Egypt / by Marc Armand Ruffer.

  • Ruffer, Marc Armand, 1859-1917
Date:
[1913?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Studies in palaeopathology in Egypt / by Marc Armand Ruffer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/30 (page 159)
    ength of the liver and spleen of Coptic bodies is diminished by about one-half, vhereas the kidneys retain very nearly their normal length. One spleen, however, instead of weighing 12 grms., weighed 27 grins., that s, nearly double the weight of the normal. It measured 20 mm. in length nore than the normal spleen. The weight of the liver of the same person was 186 grms.—that is, a little greater than normal. In this case, therefore, we lave evidence that there was during life some hypertrophy of the spleen. The second case (XII.) was still more interesting. The dimensions of the spleen (Plate YII. Fig. 6) were:— Length, 16 cms.; weight, 62 grms.; breadth, 8 cms.—that is, the spleen was it least twice as long, twice as broad, and weighed five times as much as the :iormal spleen of Coptic bodies. In the photograph the breadth is not seen, Decause the spleen was bent on itself; an appearance which, owing to the uniform blackness, could not be brought out in the photograph. The liver also was distinctly larger than normal, as it weighed 280 instead of 180 grms. Microscopical examination threw no light on the causation of the enlarge¬ ment of the volume of these organs, for an enormous growth of moulds completely obscured the structure of the organ. To speculate on the actual cause of this hypertrophy would be useless. Malaria was most probably the cause of it, and this hypothesis is supported by the fact that up to the present day it is not a rare disease in Upper Egypt where these people lived. I may mention, in this connection, that I found a similarly enlarged spleen in a Fayoum mummy, dating from the Koman period. The Fayoum Province is, even now, infested with malaria. Summary. Already in several papers I have drawn attention to the bad state of the teeth of ancient Egyptians. It would be difficult, however, to find anywhere so many diseased teeth as in these Coptic bodies. Practically every skull, with the ex¬ ception of two,1 had some serious dental defects. This may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that very little care of the dentition appears to have been taken. The thick incrustations of tartar are sufficient evidence that the Copts did not clean their teeth at all. In many peoples and animals, the absence of the tooth-brush is compensated for by the fact that the food is hard, fibrous, and raw, requiring a good deal of chewing, which mechanically cleans the teeth. In ancient Coptic times this does not appear to have been the case, for, in contrast to the predynastie bodies in which attrition is very marked, this is slight, in fact being less marked than it is in Egyptians of the present day. It would appear, therefore, that the Copts of Antinoe, lived chiefly on cooked, soft food, chewed without an effort. Caries, moreover, was extremely common, and was possibly due to the nature of the food consumed. The fact that many of these people suffered from periodontitis and 1 I do not give a detailed account of five skulls which were given to a foreign museum. As the mouths were not opened in order not to spoil them, I cannot say for certain how many teeth were bad, hut I ascertained that all of them had diseased teeth.