pox and "Persian fire" (malignant anthrax), also the Latin term for smallpox (variola).1

Ibn Sina, or Avicenna (980-1036), called "the Prince of Physicians," a convivial Omarian spirit, eminently successful in practice as court physician and vizier to different caliphs, was one who trod the primrose path at ease and died in the prime of life from the effect of its pleasures. He was physician in chief to the celebrated hospital at Bagdad, and is said to have written over one hundred works on different subjects, only a few of which have been preserved. His wonderful description of the origin of mountains (cited by Draper and Withington) fully entitles him to be called the "Father of Geology," and it is interesting to note that two physicians, widely separated in space and time-Avicenna and Fracastorius are the only writers who contributed anything of value to this science for centuries. Avicenna is said to have been the first to describe the preparation and properties of sulphuric acid and alcohol. . His "Canon," which Haller styled a "methodic inanity," is a húge, unwieldy storehouse of learning, in which the author attempts to codify the whole medical knowledge of his time and to square its facts with the systems of Galen and Aristotle. Written in clear and attractive style, this gigantic tome became a fountain-head of authority in the Middle Ages, for Avicenna's elaborated train of reasoning, a miracle of syllogism in its way, appealed particularly to the medieval mind, and indeed set the pace for its movement in many directions. Arnold of Villanova defined Avicenna as a professional scribbler who had stupefied European physicians by his misinterpretation of Galen (Neuburger). In fairness to Avicenna, it is proper to say that his clinical records, which he intended as an appendix to the "Canon," were irrecoverably lost, and only the Arabic text of the latter, published at Rome in 1593, and at Bulak in 1877, survives. That Avicenna must have been a clever practitioner we should naturally infer from his great reputation. For example, the striking plates in the Giunta edition of 1595 show that he must have known and practised the Hippocratic method of treating spinal deformities by forcible re

1 The term "variola" was first employed in the Chronicle of Bishop Marius of Avenches, as follows: "Anno 570, Hoc anno morbus validus cum profluvio ventris et variola Italiam Galliamque valde afflixit, et animalia bubula per loca suprascripta maxime interierunt." Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, in M. Bouquet, Recueil des historiens des Gaules, Paris, 1739, ii, 18. Cited by Paul Richter, Arch. f. Gesch. d. Med., Leipz., 1911-12, v,

325.

2 The principal Latin editions of the Canon are the Milan imprint of 1473, the Paduan of 1476 and 1497, the Venetian of 1482, 1486, 1490, 1491, 1494 and 1500, the Giuntas of 1527, 1544, 1555, 1582, 1595, and 1608. The commentaries in toto were printed in five giant volumes by the Giunti at Venice in 1523.

duction which was reintroduced by Calot in 1896. His recommendation of wine as the best dressing for wounds was very popular in medieval practice. Avicenna also described the guinea-worm (Vena medinensis).1 He described anthrax as "Persian fire" (Kanon, Bulak ed. 1294 (1877), III, 118) gave a good account of diabetes, and is said to have noticed the sweetish taste of diabetic urine. Yet, upon the whole, the influence of the "Canon upon medieval medicine was bad in that it confirmed physicians in the pernicious idea that ratiocination is better than first-hand investigation. It also set back the progress of surgery by inculcating the novel doctrine that the latter art is an inferior and separate branch of medicine and by substituting the use of the cautery for the knife.

Three treatises on anatomy by Rhazes, Haly Abbas, and Avicenna have been edited by P. de Koning (1903).3

Oseibia (1203-69), of Damascus, the first historian of Arabic medicine, wrote a series of biographies of ancient physicians, still in manuscript, which was the main source of the histories of Wüstenfeld and L. Leclerc.4

Other prominent medical figures of the Eastern Caliphate were the Hebrew physician Isaac ben Solomon, called Isaac Judæus (850-950), who wrote a treatise upon dietetics ("De Diæta," Padua, 1487), which became deservedly popular in Europe; and the Arabian traveler Abdollatif (1161-1231), who visited Egypt at Saladin's instance, and while there had opportunities for studying human skeletons which convinced him that Galen's osteology must be wrong in many important respects.

The Western or Cordovan Caliphate (755-1236) attained highest prosperity under the Spanish or Ommiade dynasty (7551036), and its leading medical authors were the surgeon Albucasis, the philosopher Averroes, and the Jewish physicians Avenzoar and Moses Maimonides.

Albukasim, called Albucasis, a native of Cordova, flourished in the eleventh century, and was the author of a great medico-chirurgical treatise called the "Altasrif" (or "Collection"), of which the surgical part survives in Channing's Arabic text and transla

1 Avicenna, Canon, sect. III, tract. II, cap. XXI.

2 Dinquizzi: Bull. Acad. de méd., Paris, 1913, lxx, 631. Erich Ebstein (Ztschr. f. Urol., Leipzig, 1915, ix, 243) shows that the Viaticum peregrinantes of Ibn-el-Ischezzar (1004) contains a remarkable account of diabetes (De passione diabetica) in which the thirst, polyuria, canine appetite, etc., are noted but not the sweetish urine.

3 Trois traités d'anatomie arabe, Leyden, 1903.

A Latin translation by J. J. Reiske is at Copenhagen, and the work was partly translated into French by B. R. Sanguinette (Journal asiatique, Paris, 1854-6).

tion (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1778). It contains illustrations of surgical and dental instruments (interpolated in the Venetian surgical anthology of 1500) and was the leading text-book on surgery in the Middle Ages up to the time of Saliceto. It consists of three books, founded upon the work of Paul of Ægina. The first book deals with the use of the actual cautery, the special feature of Arabian surgery, and gives descriptions and figurations of the peculiar instruments used; the second book contains full descriptions of lithotomy, lithotrity, amputations for gangrene and the treatment of wounds; the third book deals with fractures and dislocations, including fracture of the pelvis and a mention of paralysis in fracture of the spine. Albucasis was apparently the first to write on the treatment of deformities of the mouth and dental arches, and he mentions the obstetric posture which is now known as the "Walcher position." In Gurlt's time, the illustrations of surgical (including dental) instruments in Albucasis counted as the earliest known, but many earlier have since been discovered in medieval manuscripts by Sudhoff and others. The Oriental horror of touching the body with the hands or the knife was the sufficient reason why these pictures from the antique were not reproduced except occasionally in the manuscripts of the Persian Mohammedans.

The greatest of the Jewish physicians of the Western Caliphate was the Cordovan Avenzoar, who died in 1162. He was one of the few men of his time who had courage enough to tilt against Galenism, and by his description of the itch-mite (Acarus scabiei) he may be accounted the first parasitologist after Alexander of Tralles. He also described serous pericarditis, mediastinal abscess, pharyngeal paralysis, and inflammation of the middle ear, and he recommended the use of goat's milk in phthisis and tracheotomy. His "Teisir" or "Rectification of Health" is preserved in the Latin translation published at Venice in 1490.

His pupil, Averroës, also Cordovan-born (1126-1198), was more noted as a philosopher and free thinker than as a physician. His Kitab-al-Kollijat transliterated as "Colliget" ("Book of Universals"), an attempt to found a system of medicine upon Aristotle's philosophy, advanced the Pantheistic doctrine that the soul or nature of man is absorbed into universal nature at death. This denial of personal immortality caused Averroës to be perse

1“Tum decumbat mulier in collum suum, pendeantque deorsum pedes, ejus, illa vero in lectum decumbat, etc.," cited by Dr. Herbert Spencer in Lancet, London, 1912, i, p. 1568. Mercurio, in La Comare (1596), also described the hanging position of Walcher.

2 Published at Venice in 1482.

cuted in his own lifetime, and his followers to be anathematized during the Middle Ages. His work is of interest only as a relic of Arabic modes of thought.

The Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, called Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), was court-physician to Saladin, and his treatise on personal hygiene ("Tractatus de Regimine Sanitatis") was written. for that sultan's private use. It contains some admirable precepts of diet and regimen, including a rhubarb and tamarind pill, and its first edition, the Florentine imprint of 1478, is esteemed as one of the rarest of books. His tract on poisons was much cited by medieval writers, and has been translated into French (1865) and German (1873).

Such able chemists as the Arabians could not fail of being good pharmacologists, and their descriptions of the materia medica and of the preparation of drugs became standard authority throughout the Middle Ages. Even to this day what Osler calls "the heavy hand of the Arabian" is sensed in the enormous bulk of our own pharmacopeias. The principal storehouse of the Arabian materia medica is the "Jami" of Ibn Baitar, a huge thirteenth century compilation, describing some fourteen hundred drugs of which about 300 are said to be new. The "Grabadin," or apothecary's manual ("Antidotarium"), of the eponymous or pseudonymous Mesue junior, now called "pseudo-Mesue," a mysterious Latin compilation of the tenth or eleventh century, of which the Arabic originals have never been found, was the most popular compendium of drugs in medieval Europe, and was used everywhere in their preparation. The treatise on purgatives divides the latter into laxative (tamarinds, figs, prunes, cassia), mild (wormwood, senna, aloes, rhubarb) and drastic (jalap, scammony, colocynth). The esteem in which these works were held is shown by the fact that a Latin translation of both was one of the first medical books to be printed (Venice, 1471). An important work in the Persian language was the materia medica of Abu Mansur, containing descriptions of 585 drugs, of which 466 are vegetable, 75 mineral and 44 animal. A Persian manuscript of the eleventh century by Ismail of Jurjani contains probably the most complete directions of the period for examining the urine. There is much of value on climatology and medical geography in the Arabic writers.2

1 Epitomized in Latin by R. Seligmann, Vienna, 1830-33, and translated into German under the direction of Rudolf Kobert (Histor. Stud. a. d. pharm. Inst. d. Univ. Dorpat, 3. Heft, Halle, 1893).

2 See E. Wiedemann: Arch. f. Gesch. d. Naturw., Leipzig, 1914-15, v,

Cultural Aspects of Mohammedan Medicine. In Sir Richard Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights,' there is a tale of a spendthrift heir who has squandered all his substance except a beautiful slave girl of extraordinary talents, who, realizing her master's plight, urges him to bring her before the Caliph Harun alRashid to be sold for a sum large enough to cover his losses. On seeing her, the Caliph decides to test the extent of her knowledge, and has specialists put her through a lengthy cross-examination which, incidentally, furnishes us a good documentation of the social aspects of Arabian medicine. As the fair slave exploits her extensive knowledge of Mohammedan theology, law, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, astrology, music, chess-playing, and other arts and sciences, we perceive that these accomplishments were also an essential part of the Arabian physician's training, and at the same time, that a certain acquaintance with the Galenical system of medicine was a feature of the cultural equipment of any welleducated Mohammedan of the period. The Arabians derived their knowledge of Greek medicine from the Nestorian monks, many practical details from the Jews, and their astrologic lore from Egypt and the far East. So the slave girl follows the Talmud in regard to the number of the bones (249), gives an exact account of the four humors, and details at length the effects of different conjunctions of the planets. Diagnosis of internal disease is founded upon six canons: (1) The patient's actions; (2) his excreta; (3) the nature of the pain; (4) its site; (5) swelling; (6) the effluvia of the body; and further information is elicited by "the feel of the hands," whether firm or flabby, hot or cool, moist or dry, or by such indications as "yellowness of the whites of the eye" (jaundice) or "bending of the back" (lung disease). The symptoms of yellow bile are a sallow complexion, dryness of the throat, a bitter taste, loss of appetite, and rapid pulse; those of black bile, "false appetite and great mental disquiet and cark and care," terminating in melancholia. Medicinal draughts are best taken "when the sap runs in the wood and the grape thickens in the cluster and the two auspicious planets, Jupiter and Venus, are in the ascendant." Cupping is most effective at the wane of the moon, with the weather at set-fair, preferably the seventeenth of the month and on a Tuesday. This, or something like it, was about the character of Mohammedan practice toward the end of the fourteenth century, the period assigned for the composition of the Arabian

1 Denver edition, 1899, vol. v, pp. 189-245 ("Abu al-Husn and his Slavegirl Tawaddud"), the medical portion being on pp. 218-226.

2 Maurice Girardeau, in his Paris Dissertation (No. 107, 1910), points out that the cholemic diathesis was perhaps the most prominent feature of Arabic pathology.