r+ 6 



MEDICAL SCIENCES. 



holy oil at their consecration, should have believed that they had the power 

 of healing, by the imposition of hands, various maladies, such as goitre, 

 king's evil, white tumours, &c. 



The empirical method, which was current in the West during the 

 eleventh century, was not the same as the philosophical medical treatment 

 taught in the celebrated schools of the East, but in the practice of which 

 there were many singular contradictions. The Arabic mode of treatment 

 was, so to speak, speculative. Yet the illustrious Aviccnna (born at Chiraz, 

 in Persia, about 980), whom his contemporaries surnamed the Prince of 



Fig. 101. A Leper House. Miniature from the "Miroir Historical " of Vincent de Beauvais. 

 Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century. In the Arsenal Library, Paris. 



Doctors, was educated in the school of Bagdad ; and his immense reputation, 

 which won him access to the courts of several Asiatic sovereigns, is a proof 

 of the talent with which he practised his art. Amongst the numerous 

 works in Arabic which he left behind him, that entitled the "Canon," a 

 medical encyclopaedia, which testifies to the erudition and sagacity of the 

 author, was translated into Latin, and served as a basis of teaching for six 

 or seven centuries. The followers of Avicenna spread the doctrine of their 

 master with great success, amongst them being Ilarun the Jew, who was 

 one of the first interpreters of the " Canon " in Europe ; Mesue the younger. 



