The papyrus has been dated to the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, around the time of pharaoh Tuthmosis III. The text is believed to have been composed earlier, during the Middle Kingdom, around 2000 BCE. The papyrus is so unusually well preserved that questions have persisted regarding its authenticity.

"The Hearst Papyrus contains 260 paragraphs on 18 columns^[2] of medical prescriptions, written in hieratic Egyptian writing. The topics range from "a tooth which falls out" to "remedy for treatment of the lung",^[1]but concentrates on treatments for problems dealing with the urinary system, blood, hair, and bites^[2] (by human beings, pigs, and hippopotamuses^[1]). One incantation deals with the 'Canaanite illness', "when the body is coal-black with charcoal spots", probably tularemia, one of the 'plagues' which helped to unseat the Hyksos.^[3] "(Wikipedia article on the Hearst Papyrus accessed 01-2017). See Chauncey D. Leake, Sanford V. Larkey and Henry F. Lutz, "The management of fractures according to the Hearst Medical Papyrus," IN: Underwood, E.A. (ed.) Science, medicine and history: Essays on the evolution of scientific thought and medical practice written in honour of Charles Singer (London: Oxford University Press, 1953) Vol. 1, pp. 61-74. Digital facsimile of the 1905 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.