NATURE 207 
_ and at a somewhat later date this country possessed the most | many authors, including Aristotle, Dj i Pi 
famous universities in Europe. The Arabs, a propagating their Pras gramacad into rahio pe ; paced pea Teidale 
new religion, propagated also the remains of ancient culture, | diffused. ‘Ce fut,” remarks M. Figuier ”«¢ ainsi que de I’Inde 
which had already been introduced into Persia and Syria by the | jusqu’d l’Espagne, des rivages du Tigre jusqw’a ceux du Guadal- 
Nestorians, who had founded a school of great reputation at | quivir, les livres de science se propagerent parmi des peuples 
Odessa. Again, when Justinian closed the schools of Athens | qui avait déja une littérature, une philosophie religieuse, et qui 
and Alexandria, many of the professors fled to Persia and | n’étaient point dépourvus d’imagination,” 
Arabia, and formed new centres of learning. The works of| In the eighth century the University of Bagdad was founded 
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Fic. 9.—English MS. on Alchemy.—Fifteenth century. 
by the Caliph Al-Mansor, and in the following century it attained | and we cannot tell from what source Geber acquired any of his 
@ pre-eminent position. A large medical school was connected | knowledge. He alludes to no one by name, but we know that 
with it, also hospitals and laboratories. The Caliph Al-Mamoum 
erected an observatory in Bagdad, and an attempt was made to 
measure an arc of the meridian. It is said that at one time the 
University of Bagdad possessed more than six thousand students. 
In it the sciences found a home, and every scrap of ancient learn- 
ing was eagerly collected and often extended. When the Arabic 
empire was broken up by internal dissensions into a number of 
small states, the University of Bagdad, losing the powerful 
tronage of the Caliphs, fell into decay, and soon ceased to be 
Soni. A somewhat celebrated school arose in Cairo in the 
tenth century, but we possess but few particulars concerning it. 
We soon hear of Spain as a focus of learning. In the tenth 
century this was the most flourishing country in Europe, both in- 
tellectuaily and otherwise. The University of Cordova possessed 
great celebrity, and students flocked to it from all parts of the 
world. It contained a library of between 200,000 and 300,000 
volumes, an unusually large collection of books prior to the in- 
vention of printing. The Arabians were great mathematicians 
and astronomers. Lalande places Mohammed-ben-Giaber (better 
known as Albategnius) among the twenty greatest astronomers 
who have ever lived. Again, Alhazen wrote a treatise on optics 
in the eleventh century, and there were many treatises on botany 
and medicine. The Arabs made but little advance in anatomy 
however, because they were forbidden by the Koran to mutilate 
the human body. 
After the above remarks it is almost needless to say that we 
must look to Arabia for the earliest treatises on alchemy and 
chemistry. Indeed the Arabians cultivated the latter science 
with success, and the first work on the subject with whic: we 
are acquainted was written by Yeber-Abou-Moussah- Djafer al- 
Sofi, whom we call Geber, an Arab of the eighth century. 
There had, no doubt, been writers on chemistry before his time, 
but probably not long before. _We have endeavoured to provein 
the preceding article that the Greek MSS. on the ‘sacred art” | the Arabians collected knowledge from every source—Egyptian, 
are not trustworthy evidences of the early origin of the science ; | Indian, Persian, Greek, and Roman, It is thought by some 
