292 Dr Graigre's Observations on the 



barians of the east and north, presents a scene of ignoranc^^ 

 crime, and barbarism, utterly incompatible with the cultivation 

 of science ; and the knowledge possessed by a few scholars was 

 scarcely sufficient to enable them to wri^e bad memoirs of the 

 passing events. In such a state of society, when the art of 

 healing professed by ecclesiastics and itinerant practitioners wag 

 degraded by the grossest ignorance and superstition,' It' 'i^^ltt«j 

 wonderful that anatomy was entirely neglected, and that nb 

 name of anatomical celebrity occurs to diversify the long and 

 uninteresting period commonly distinguished as the middle ages. 



Nor can the anatomists look to the Arabian physicians and 

 naturalists during this period with better hopes of success. 

 Though several of the learned Saracens eagerly cultivated the 

 knowledge of natural history, though they were anxious to dis- 

 cover the virtues of various plants, studied alchemy, and made 

 several bold experiments on the human frame by the earthy or 

 metallic salts, anatomy was never cultivated practically by them, 

 and the little knowledge which they possessed was derived from 

 the writings of Aristotle and Galen. The Koran denounces as 

 unclean the person who touches a corpse, human or animal ; 

 the precepts of Islamism forbid dissection ; and however dis- 

 tinguished in medicine were Al-Rasi, Ibn-Sina and Ibn-Rosch, 

 the Razes, Avicenna, and Averrhoes of European authors, 

 these prejudices prevented them from acquiring the most im- 

 portant and fundamental principles of their science. Abdolla- 

 tiph alone, the annalist of Egyptian affairs, admits the neces- 

 sity of personal dissection. But the influence of a single indi- 

 vidual is of little avail in stemming the torrent of national pre- 

 judice. It is a singular proof of the pernicious influence of re- 

 putation, nevertheless, that the nomenclature and distinctions of 

 the Arabians were long retained by European anatomists, till 

 the revival of ancient learning restored those of the Greek phy- 

 sicians. Thus the cervix or nape of the neck is denominated 

 nucha ; the diaphragm is named meri ; the umbilical region, 

 sumen or sumach ; the abdomen, myrach ; the peritoneum^ 

 in^^Rii^i and the omentum zirbus. ytUKsh 



The Saracens were indebted for their literary and scientific 

 celebrity not to their merit, but to the ignorance and compara- 

 tive rudeness of the Europeans. As soon as the wealth and inii 



