Dr. Ainslie on Small-pox and Inoculation in Eastern Countries. 57 



gent and amiable man, and thoroughly acquainted with the Greek authors 

 of all descriptions. 



Serapion treated slightly of the distemper, and dwells much on the ad- 

 vantage to be derived from a light acescent diet. He lived and published 

 towards the end of the ninth century ; cites Mesne, who practised physic at 

 Bagdad A.D. 795, and is himself referred to by Rhazis. This last-men- 

 tioned medical sage, for so he was reckoned, was named after a city of 

 Khorassan, Rhei, in which he was born. He wrote, as already stated, pro- 

 fessedly de variolis et morbilUs, obtained great repute towards the beginning 

 of the tenth century, and was the first who remarked that there were 

 instances of the small-pox having occurred twice, and even thrice,* in the 

 same person. Abulpharagius\ speaks of him under the name oi Muhammed 

 Ebn Zacharia al Jtazi. Pocock makes him to have died in 930, and informs 

 us that he was not only an able physician, but skilled in music, philosophy, 

 and astronomy. 



In the course of time came Hali Abbas, who was named by the Saracens 

 Mhaliiki, and was of the order of the magi. This distinguished Arabian 

 wrote his famous Regalis Dispositio about the year 980 : it is a general 

 treatise on the healing art, dedicated to Caliph Eddoulat, and was trans- 

 lated from the Arabic into Latin by Stephanus, in 1492. Farther, how- 

 ever, than having made an approach to the discovery of the contagion, as 

 the erudite Mr. Moore well calls it, Hali Abbas did little towards making 

 mankind better acquainted with the true nature of the small-pox. He con- 

 founded it with the measles. He had some strange notions of the disorder 

 being probably produced by the dregs of the milk, the better portion of 

 which had been taken away by the suckling child, and betrays in many 

 parts of his work that he was a great borrower from Hippocrates. 



It is not necessary for my present purpose, that I should enumerate all 

 the ancient Eastern or other authors, who may have at different times 

 treated of a complaint which continued in those days to spread terror and 

 dismay. If the reader is curious on the subject, he may find much relevant 

 and well-arranged information in a work which I have repeatedly alluded 

 to, Mr. Moore's History of the Small-pox. Suffice it here to observe, that 

 up to tlie fifteenth century, there appeared in succession the far-famed 

 Aviceinia, born at Bokhara in A.D. 99% who spoke decidedly of the con- 



• Vide Kliazis Contin. lib. xxiii. cap. 8. f Vide Abulphar Pyn. ed. Pocock, p. 191. 



Vol. II. I 



