596 ASIATIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO ART AND SCIENCE. 



it. His breakfast- tray was lacquered in Japan. There is a tradition 

 that leavened bread was first made of the waters of the Ganges. The 

 egg he is breaking was laid by a fowl whose ancestors were domesticated 

 by the Malaccans, unless she may have been, though that will not alter 

 the case, a modern Shanghai. If there are preserves and fruits on his 

 board, let him remember with thankfulness that Persia first gave him 

 the .cherry, the peach, the plum. If in any of those delicate preparations 

 he detects the flavor of alcohol, let it remind him that that substance was 

 first distilled by the Arabians, who have set him the praiseworthy exam- 

 ple, which it will be for his benefit to follow, of abstaining from its use. 

 When he talks about coffee and alcohol, he is using Arabic words. A 

 thousand years before it had occurred to him to enact laws of restriction 

 on the use of intoxicating drinks, the Prophet of Mecca had accomplish- 

 ed the same object, and, what is more to the purpose, has compelled, to 

 this day, all Asia and Africa to obey it. We gratify our taste for per- 

 sonal ornament in the way the Orientals have taught us, with pearls, ru- 

 bies, sapphires, diamonds. Of public amusements it is -the same : the 

 most magnificent fireworks are still to be seen in India and China ; and 

 as regards the pastimes of private life, Europe has produced no invention 

 Asiatic contri- which can rival the game of chess. We have no hydraulic 

 buttons in art. constructions as great as the Chinese canal no fortifications 

 as extensive as the Chinese wall ; we have no artesian wells that can at 

 all approach in depth some of theirs ; we have not yet resorted to the 

 practice of obtaining coal-gas from the interior of the earth : they have 

 borings for that purpose more than 3000 feet deep. 



Similar observations may be made if we examine the Asiatic contribu- 

 Asiatic contri ^ ons to sc i ence While the learned of Europe were forbid- 

 butions in sci- ding, as a heresy, the doctrine of the globular figure of the 

 earth, the Caliph Al Maimon was measuring the length of a 

 degree along the shore of the Eed Sea. He and his successors repeat- 

 edly determined the obliquity of the ecliptic. A Saracen constructed the 

 first table of sines, another explained the nature of twilight, and showed 

 the importance of allowing for atmospheric refraction in astronomical ob- 

 servations. Algebra itself was invented and brought into Europe by the 

 Mohammedans, who gave it the name it bears. The same may be said 

 of chemistry. It is needless to pursue these statements, for whoever will 

 take the trouble to look into the history of any branch of science existing 

 in the seventeenth century will find how deep are its obligations to Asia. 

 I shall therefore add but one fact more, the invention of the figures of 

 arithmetic, which in reality gave birth to that science, and laid knowl- 

 edge and commerce equally under obligations. From its simplicity, 

 beauty, and universality, this invention alone is enough to command the 

 gratitude of the human race. The manner of using the cipher and 



