Amulets
were buried with the mummy usually in and around the mummy bandages . These amulets would protect the mummy after death . The eye of
Horus
(or 'wedjat eye') was a famous amulet which was used as a symbol of protection from evil .
Magic was so relevant that healing amulets played an important role in treatments , especially one called the eye of Horus (figure1) . An Egyptian legend said that there had been a fight between
Seth
and Horus because Seth had killed Horus´ father (Osiris) . In this combat Seth had damaged Horus´ eyes . But the wise god Toth healed Horus´ eyes and then he used one of the cured eyes to revive Osiris . Since that time the eye of Horus became a powerful healing amulet . So important was its influence over the time that even today the symbol which is at the beginning of our medical prescriptions (Rap) (figure 2) takes after the shape of the eye of Horus .
Egyptian doctors described what we currently known as “medical semiology” , since to them an organized physical examination were central for medical work . They used as we do medical maneuvers such as inspection , palpation and auscultation inorder to obtain information from the patient´s body . Although , they did
not conceive our current concepts of disease , they used the concept of syndromes , i . e . a group of signs and symptoms that delineate a recognizable pattern . They also identified some signs as markers of severe physical compromise , such as truisms , neck stiffness , weak pulse , etc .
Since they had understood the central role of some organs such as the heart and the kidney , in the mummification process they did not remove these organs which they considered vital for re-incarnation . Because these organs were considered so vital , if they were damaged before mummification or during this procedure they had to be replaced by a beetle-shaped amulet . Since this object was supposed to replace magically the absent organ we can consider this as the first attempt “to replace a vital human organ by an artificial device” .
One of the most widely worn protective amulets was the wedjat eye: the restored eye of Horus . It was worn by the living , and often appeared on rings and as an element of necklaces . It was also placed on the body of the deceased during the mummificationprocess to protect the incision through which the internal organs were removed .
Several of the spells in the Book of the Dead were intended to be spoken over specific amulets , which were
then placed in particular places on the body of the deceased .
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