Donatella Lippi
Chair of the History of Medicine, University of Bologna
Keywords:
Egyptian medicine, Lathyrism , Broad Beans
Abstract
The problem of broad bean's syndrome an lathyrism in ancient Greece has been deeply studied, with particular referrement to the hypothetic medica and mystical reasons of the pythagoric order not to eat broad beans. It is impossible to proove egyptian influence of Phythagora's precept, but we can however, consider the hypothesis that they had noticed the potential deadly effect of broad beans' use, too, and wonder if their interduction had the same motivations.
