HISTOKY OF BOTANY. 27 



likely that many others were true botanists also, but 

 embodied all the results of their botanical explorations in 

 their works " de medicamentis simplicibus." 



Ebn Abu Oseibia was born at Damascus, where his father 

 was an oculist, and his uncle director of the eye hospital. 

 We have just noticed his botanical studies under Ebn 

 al-Beitar; he also studied philosophy and medicine. In 

 1236 he was employed in the hospital at Cairo, but went 

 the following year to Sarched, in Syria, in the service of the 

 Emir, and died there 1269, over seventy years of age. His 

 most remarkable work is a history of medicine : to show the 

 importance of this work I quote from Wiirstenfeld an 

 abridged account of its contents, taken from the writings of 

 Keiske and Nicol, with the remark that some names are 

 mentioned by Nicol that are omitted by Eeiske, and vice 

 versa. I omit the names altogether, as unnecessary to our 

 subject, recording only the number of authors. 



Chapter I. — Origin of medicine. 



,, II. — The first physicians and discoverers of medicine. 



„ III. — The Greek physicians after iEsculapius. 



,, IV. — Hippocrates and his disciples : Empedocles, Pythagoras, 



Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus, Alexander 



Aplu'odisiensis. 

 ,, V. — Galen and his contemporaries. 



„ VI. — The Alexandrian and contemporary Christian physicians. 

 „ VII. — Ai'ab physicians to the time of Mohammed. . 10 



,, VIII. — Syrian physicians under the family of Abbasides. . 34 

 „ IX. — Translators and their patrons. . . .48 



,, X. — Physicians of Irac, Mesopotamia and Dijarbekr. . 77 

 ,, XI. — Persian physicians. . . . . .23 



,, XII. — Indian physicians. .... .7 



,, XIII. — ^Western physicians. 



Of Mauritania ..... 3 



Of Spain. ...... 89 



„ XIV. — Egj^tian physicians. . . . .53 



„ XV. — Later Syrian physicians . . . .58 



In all 402 



