HISTORY. 23 
a medicament) at 20 denarii. A larger number of prices is 
given in Diocletian’s “ Edictum de pretiis rerum venalium,” of 
the year 301 A.p., which, indeed, applied more to articles of 
food and other indispensable necessaries of life than to spices 
and medicinal substances, and was also issued orly for the eastern 
part of the Roman empire, not for Europe.’ The edict men- 
tions, among other things, almonds, hemp-seed, figs, fenugreek, 
linseed, olives, mustard, sesame seed, and grapes. 
6. During the decline of antique civilization the fostering of 
the sciences passed into the care of the Arabs, who also seized 
upon the medical traditions of antiquity, and were enabled to 
widely extend them, through their geographical position, from 
the highlands of Asia and India to Spain and northern Africa, 
as also, through their frequent connections with India, occasion- 
ally to enlarge and expand the same. The most eminent repre- 
sentatives of Arabic medicine in the tenth and eleventh centu- 
ries, Alhervi, Avicenna, Mesue, Serapion, and others, enriched 
materia medica with some Asiatic drugs, such as tamarinds, 
nux vomica, cubebs, senna leaves, rhuburb, camphor, and worm- 
seed (?), and, through the introduction of formulas for medicinal 
preparations, exercised an exceedingly lasting influence upon 
pharmacy, even in the Occident. With regard to many drugs 
from distant lands, the Arabians at an early period received in- 
formation through travellers, or from historical and geographical 
authors,” such as Khurdadbah, Istachri, Masudi, Idrisi, and 
Ibn Batuta. Ibn Alawan reported in the twelfth century upon 
the flourishing condition of agriculture among his people in 
Spain, from which also dates the cultivation of saffron, still 
continued there at the present day. The most prolific informa- 
tion, however, chiefly from earlier and often much older sources 
of Arabic literature, has been brought together by Ibn Baitar 
in his large encyclopedia of simple medicinal remedies and 
one should employ for this purpose paper soaked in nutgall—thus prob- 
ably the earliest application of test-paper ! 
1 Fliickiger, loc. cit., p. 997. Compare further, Burckhardt, “Die woe as 
Zeit Konstantins des Grossen.” Leipzig, 1880, p. 62. 
? Fliickiger, loc. cit., p. 107, Note 10. _ 
