DURING THE MIDDLE AGE. 



tion of Mithridatc, theriaca, and antidotes fufn- 

 cicntly demonftrate the low eftimation of fim- 

 pler medicines, which ftill fell more into difre- 

 pute, as the Greeks and Arabians vied fevc- 

 ral ages with each other in ufing the longcil 

 formulne. At the time the knowledge of the 

 Arabians firfl enlightened the wcilern part of 

 Europe, it was ihroudcd with fuch impenetrable 

 darkncfs, that neither rcafon nor perception 

 could form the lead probable conjecture of its 

 future improvement. From Ariflotle we learn, 

 that medicines were divided into the warm and 

 cold, the dry and humid, which were combined 

 according as circumftanccs required. Hippo- 

 crates was the author of the attenuating, in- 

 craffating, debilitating, and allringent qualities, 

 and feveral others, in which Erafiilratus and his 

 followers committed wonderful atufes. As we 

 have many medicines that ad particularly on 

 certain parts, as the cephalic, ftomachic, diure- 

 tic, hepatic, Sic. an opinion was afterwards 

 entertained, that others aflecled equally the 

 whole fyftcm. They divided every quality in- 

 to four degrees, and each degree into three parts. 

 All compounds they examined with attention; 

 and, if they found them faulty, fomething to 

 correct them was added : That their force might 

 not be impaired by digcftion, they were defend- 

 ed by fome particular ingredient from the ac- 

 tion of the ftomach ; to thofe that operated too 



hrulily 



