Author: Apiladey ApilSin
Date: Oct 21, 2002 - 03:39

The following quote is from Guido Majno's The Healing Hand: While the tablets are fairly explicit about what the physician did, they do not explain why he did it. This we have to read between the lines. The single exception is a startling letter in which Arad-Nana, the rab asi or "chief physician" to king Esharaddon (680 - 669 BC), explains a mechanism - not for the sake of science, but to straighten out an ignorant colleague before the king......."To the king my lord, your servant Arad-Nanu. May it be surpassingly well with the king my lord. May Ninurta and Gula grant health of mind and body to the king my lord.

It is exceedingly well with the son of the king. The treatment that we had planned for him, we gave it for 5/6 of a double hour [100 minutes]. He has walked, he has felt better and regained strength. However, he has not yet gone out...

In regard to the patient who had a hemorrhage from the nose, the rab-mugi [a high official charged with the care of horses and chariots, possibly the rabmag of Jeremiah 39:3] reported to me: "Yesterday toward evening much blood ran". That is because the dressings [that I had] prescribed are applied without knowledge. They are placed over the nostrils, [so that] they [only] obstruct the breathing [but] come off when there is hemorrhage. They should be placed within the nostril: [then] they will stop the breath and hold back the blood. If it is agreeable to the king, I will go tomorrow and give instructions. Now [meantime] let me hear of his condition."

Arad-Nanu was absolutely right: dressings placed over the nose are of little help; they must be stuffed inside. Except for the Rab-Mugi, this letter could have been written yesterday.

Where was Arad-Nanu in my baseball days, when I couldn't catch and got a lot of bloody noses?