14 THE HISTORY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE 



of pityriasis, advice to travellers, surgery, poisons, regional diseases, fevers, 

 and also the qualities necessary for a physician, and remarks on quacks and 

 impostors. He gave the earliest accounts of smallpox and measles, which 

 earned for him lasting fame . 



A System of Midwifery — ' Kitab-u-Tadblr-el-Habala '■ — was written in the 

 fourth century by a physician Abu-'l- Abbas Ahmad ben Muhammad ben 

 Yahya-'l-Baladt. This book included the management of pregnancy and the 

 diseases of the foetus and the infant, as well as the rearing of the child. 



Khalaf ben *Abbds-az-Zahrdwi, or Albucasis, was born at Az-zahra, near 

 Cordova, and died probably about a.d. 1013. His great work is ' Kitabu- 

 'T-Tasrif,' which is an encyclopaedia chiefly valued for its surgical portion, 

 which was translated into Latin in the twelfth century, and for long remained 

 the standard surgery of Europe. 



Ophthalmic surgery was considered by 'AH ben 'isd al-Kuhhdl, or Jesu 

 Haly. 



Abu 'All al-Husayn ben 'Abdullah ben Sind, or Avicenna, often called Asli- 

 Shaykh (the Reverend) or Ar-Ra'is (the Chief), was born at Ashainah, in 

 Bu^ara, in a.d. 980. He was physician to the Sultan of Bukh&rd, but later 

 he retired to Jurj an, where he wrote his celebrated ' Kitdbu 'L-Q§,nun,' or 

 Book of the Canon. He died in a.d. 1037. His great work is essentially 

 medical, as the surgical portion is poorer than that of Albucasis, and is in 

 many places a treatise on tropical medicine. 



Hibatulldh ben Zayd ben Hasan ben Ya' qub ben Ismd 'il ben Jami'al Isrd'ilt, 

 or Ibn Jami Isra'ili, was brought up in Old Cairo, and was considered to 

 be the greatest of the Egyptian physicians. He was physician to the cele- 

 brated Al-Malik-u'n-Nasir Salah u'd-Din (Saladin), for whom he made his 

 Theriac. He died in a.d. 1198.' 



The last of the great Arabian physicians, Dd'udben 'Umaral-Antdki. wrote 

 an encyclopaedia of medicine, and after living for a long time in Cairo went to 

 reside in Mecca, where he died in a.d. 1599. 



Medieval Medicine. — -Following Garrison, we may date medieval 

 medicine from the time that the School of Salerno established its 

 influence in Europe. As to the origin of this epoch-making school, 

 we know nothing, but we do know that it was here that Arabic 

 translations of Greek medical works were turned into the Latin 

 language by scholars from Spain, and we also know that the know- 

 ledge so obtained led to great practical results, in that universities 

 were founded, the great movement of building hospitals was begun, 

 both of which were founded and aided by Church and State alike. 

 Salerno laid the foundations of these advances in medical teaching 

 and care of the sick, and thus prepared the way for modern medicine, 

 especially as it encouraged individual medical talent. 



Foundations of Modern Medicine. 



The revival of learning was only made possible by the destruction 

 of feudalism, and this was brought about, as Garrison and others 

 haye pointed out, by the discovery of gunpowder. To this great 

 act of freedom must be linked the discovery of printing by means 

 of movable type, and the sack of Mainz in 1462, which disseminated 

 the art of printing all over Europe and thus enabled knowledge to be 

 easily preserved and widely distributed. 



While these events were stirring the general public, medical men 

 were confronted with new diseases from the East, which came in 

 epidemic form, and these terrible outbreaks compelled them to 



