A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



upon this knowledge in treating ailments rather than 

 upon prayers or incantations. He is said, for exam- 

 ple, to have recommended and applied the cautery in 

 the case of a friend who, when suffering from angina, 

 had sought his aid. 



The list of eminent Arabian physicians is too long 

 to be given here, but some of them are of such im- 

 portance in their influence upon later medicine that 

 they cannot be entirely ignored. One of the first of 

 these was Honain ben Isaac (809-873 A.D.), a Christian 

 Arab of Bagdad. He made translations of the works 

 of Hippocrates, and practised the art along the lines 

 indicated by his teachings and those of Galen. He 

 is considered the greatest translator of the ninth 

 century and one of the greatest philosophers of that 

 period. 



Another great Arabian physician, whose work was 

 just beginning as Honain's was drawing to a close, was 

 Rhazes (850-923 A.D.), who during his life was no 

 less noted as a philosopher and musician than as a 

 physician. He continued the work of Honain, and 

 advanced therapeutics by introducing more extensive 

 use of chemical remedies, such as mercurial ointments, 

 sulphuric acid, and aqua vitae. He is also credited with 

 being the first physician to describe small-pox and 

 measles accurately. 



While Rhazes was still alive another Arabian, Haly 

 Abbas (died about 994), was writing his famous 

 encyclopaedia of medicine, called The Royal Book. 

 But the names of all these great physicians have been 

 considerably obscured by the reputation of Avicenna 

 (980-1037), the Arabian "Prince of Physicians," the 



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