98 LITERATURE OF THE ARABS. 



and continued the oracles of medical knowledge for 

 nearly 600 years. His Canon consists of five books, 

 each of which has its subdivisions. His Materia 

 Medica must have been sufficiently absurd, as we 

 find him recommending the administration of gold, 

 silver, and precious stones, with a view to purify 

 the blood. It is to this ridiculous belief that the 

 custom of gilding and silvering pills is to be refer- 

 red. In anatomical knowledge he appears to have 

 been extremely superficial. To follow out the intri- 

 cacies of his pathology, his speculations on the func- 

 tions of the brain, the vital spirits, pleurisies, fevers, 

 faculties, and temperaments, is unnecessary for our 

 purpose. Posterior to Avicenna, flourished, among 

 many others of lesser note, Abulcasis, Avenzoar, and 

 his pupil Averroes, whose fame was as distinguish- 

 ed in medical as in metaphysical science. 



To pharmacy the Arabs paid particular attention ; 

 and they deserve the credit of having set the first 

 example of publishing pharmacopeias or regular 

 dispensatories, containing collections of authorized 

 formulae. The shops of the Saracen apothecaries 

 were placed under the immediate superintendence 

 of the magistrates, who took care that they should 

 be provided with genuine drugs, and that these 

 should be sold at reasonable prices. Many of the 

 pharmaceutical terms, as naphtha, camphor, syrup, 

 and jalap, are of Arabian origin. In this branch 

 of the science Avenzoar was well versed ; and in his 

 treatise we find accounts of both simple and com- 

 pound medicines not elsewhere to be met with. The 

 discovering of antidotes for poisonous plants seems to 

 have been a favourite research with him. Various 

 other writers enlarged the limits of pharmacy. The 





