DURING THE MIDDLE AGE. 107 



the end of the fame century, Nicolaus Prevoft, 

 a phyfician of Tours, wrote a general pharma- 

 copoeia, 



rn. The /Egyptian ointment, oil offcorpioni, diachylon 

 plaifters, and others of Arabian origin, arc dill ufcd at this 

 day, under the fame names, and with very little change of com- 

 poiiiio*i. We know nothing of the preferred litharge, the 

 white fulphur, the earth of mercury, &c* cf Rhazis. He 

 commends much a martial vinous elixir, by the title of a pre- 

 paration of the fcoria of iron with wine, and watci of rtifcs 

 alfo ; but whether he prepared it by fimplc infufion or by dif- 

 tillation we arc not told. Of the fyrups, he mixed fome with 

 honey, others with fugar and honey, and fome with manna. 

 The infpifiatcd juices of plants the Arabians called rob ; and 

 they reckoned among their fyrups whatever was piefcrvcd 

 with aromatic*. The names of oxymcls and oxyfacchari they 

 ufed indifcriminatcly; from which it might be conjectured that 

 fugar and honey were equally common to them. Rhazis con- 

 trived various mixtures of fugnr ; fuch ai the fugar of water 

 lilly, of voilet*, of rofes, AT. He is faid to be the firft who 

 exprcficd oil from rggp, and Friend fufpefls, that the oil of 

 brick* was his invention. Albucafi:., who probably lived af- 

 ter Rhaxi's furpaflcd all his countrymen in chemical know- 

 ledge Of all his remarkable, and in fome mcafur: volumi- 

 nous, work on the unvctful materia modica, we have the 

 2yth book only remaining, entitled Servitor, and which con- 

 tains all the precepts of pharmacy, concifc indeed, but fufH- 

 cicntly clear and intelligible. Bcfides other things, arc to be 

 fuiind rnthisbook, the preparation offal titimoniacj three modes 

 of diftillitior, of vinegar, of wine, &c. It defcri!)cs four 

 kinds of alembics and cucuibits, ofglaf*, of earth intruded 

 with glafs, of lead, and of braf*. Albucalls has a decoction of 

 hiera ; which \7as a tirdurc prepared in the fun ; and various 

 rxtmds from Die juices of plants infpifiatcd in the folar heat. 

 He difTolvcd ums in water or acetous acid, and filtrated the fo- 

 Jution through courfc. hempen clothes. He defcribcs the prc- 

 of alkaline fait in the fame manner with Dioicori- 



de. S 



