14 GENERAL THERAPEUTICS FOR VETERINARIANS 



Arabian Medicine. — Its foundation was the theories of Hippocrates and 

 Galen. Added to these were the new elements of chemistry and pharmacy. 

 As alchemists, the Arabian physicians discovered analysis, synthesis, distil- 

 lation, sublimation, precipitation, preparation of salts, and the manufacture 

 of alcohol. They were also beUevers in spirituaUsm, and considered medi- 

 cines as the bearers of a spirit, to which their power was due. The most 

 celebrated Arabian physicians were Rhazes (923 a.d.) and Avicenna (978 a.d.). 

 Rhazes was first a teacher of medicine and philosophy in Bagdad, later director 

 of the lazaretto in Ray. His works were: "On the Healing of Diseases," 

 "Aphorisms," and "Antidotes." They contain the earliest discussion of 

 smallpox. Medicines mentioned are: mercurial preparations, copper sul- 

 phate, arsenic, nitrate of potash. Avicenna, a native of Bokhara, studied 

 in Bagdad, was private physician to the prince of Ray and later Vizier in 

 Hamadan. On account of an insurrection he fled to Ispahan, dressed as a 

 monk. To his chief works he gave the name of "Canons"; they contained 

 nearly everything concerning the entire subject of medicine and attained a 

 wide circulation in Em-ope. His catalogue of medicines was very extensive 

 (rhubarb, silver, gold, many plants). 



Monks' Medicine. — From the sixth to the sixteenth century, a period of 

 one thousand years, in Italy, Germany, France, and other countries of western 

 Emrope, medicine was almost exclusively in the hands of the monks, who 

 conducted special medical schools. Of the latter the most celebrated was the 

 school at Salerno, from the tenth to the thirteenth century, a NeapoUtan 

 Benedictine cloister, where pharmacy, pharmacology, and dietetics especially 

 were taught (Regimen sanitatis Salemi, Antidotariam minus, De simpUci 

 medicini, Eros). Another Neapolitan cloister school was the one at Monte 

 Casino. In France, in the thirteenth century, was the school of Montpellier, 

 which later developed into the University. 



3. PARACELSUS 



Biographical. — Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus ab 

 Hohenheim, called Paracelsus, was born near Zurich in 1493, the 

 son of a physician. He studied in Basel and travelled in almost all 

 the countries of Europe. In 1527 he became professor of physics, 

 medicine, and surgery in Basel and also city physician, but left 

 there secretly a year later on account of differences with the munic- 

 ipal authorities. After that he lived an unsettled, wandering life 

 in a number of cities in Alsace, Bavaria, Wiirtemburg, Austria, 

 Switzeriand, and other lands, until, at the age of 48 years, he died 

 in 1541, in Salzburg, where he was buried. Besides a large number 



