MEDI/EVAL SCIENCE AMONG ARABIANS 



any acid more powerful Ik in acetic. Geber, however, 

 vastly increased the possibilities of chemical ex- 

 periment by the discovery of sulphuric, nitric, and 

 nitromuriatic acids. He made use also of the processes 

 of sublimation and filtration, and his works describe 

 the water bath and the chemical oven. Among the im- 

 portant chemicals which he first differentiated is oxide 

 of mercuiy, and his studies of sulphur in its various 

 compounds have peculiar interest. In particular is 

 this true of his observation that, under certain condi- 

 tions of oxidation, the weight of a metal was lessened. 

 From the record of these studies in the fields of as- 

 tronomy, physics, and chemistry, we turn to a some- 

 what extended survey of the Arabian advances in the 

 field of medicine. 



ARABIAN MEDICINE 



The influence of Arabian physicians rested chiefly 

 upon their use of drugs rather than upon anatomical 

 knowledge. Like the mediaeval Christians, they looked 

 with horror on dissection of the human body; yet 

 there were always among them investigators who turn- 

 ed constantly to nature herself for hidden truths, and 

 were ready to uphold the superiority of actual ob- 

 servation to mere reading. Thus the physician Abd 

 el-Letif, while in Egypt, made careful studies of a 

 mound of bones containing more than twenty thousand 

 skeletons. While examining these bones he discovered 

 that the lower jaw consists of a single bone, not of two, 

 as had been taught by Galen. He also discovered 

 several other important mistakes in Galenic anatomy, 

 and was so impressed with his discoveries that he 



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