History

A new interpretation of a 3,500-year-old medical text from Egypt suggests that ancient physicians might have bathed patients' eyeballs in human breast milk to treat certain ophthalmic conditions. And while that might not sound particularly appealing, researchers think that growth hormones and immune proteins found in a mother's milk might actually help to heal the ocular surface when applied topically. This intriguing intersection of ancient remedies and modern science is shedding new light on the sophisticated medical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians and offering potential new avenues for treating a condition that affects millions of people worldwide. The study, published in the Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics , was authored by ophthalmologists David Maskill, Robert Morgan Blizzard, and Arthur