CHAPTER 2. 
received due reception and encouragement* 
Schools were eftablifhed, in which Aris- 
totle, Galen, Dioscorides, and other 
writers, were ftudied ; and their dodrines^ 
at length pervaded the whole dominion of 
the Saracens,, and finally flourifhed in the 
univerfities of Spam. 
Dioscorides, thoirgh in a corrupt and 
mutilated ftate, formed the bafis of know- 
ledge in the Botany and Materia Medica of 
the Arabians. The fituation of Bagdaty 
and its connexion with Indian allowed them 
fcope to introduce into phyfic feveral ufe- 
ful fimples. Among others, we owe ta 
thefe Orientals the milder purges of the 
prefent day ^ fuch 2iS fe7272a, eajjia jijiulay 
7nannay tamarinds^ rhubarb y2in^ feveral drugs 
of other qualities, of which fome retain a 
pkce in the prefent reformed ftate of the 
Materia Medica, Avicenn a, we are told,, 
had coloured drawings for the inftruclioa^ 
of his pupils in Botany ; and Pro/per Al* 
PIN us affures us, he faw at Cairo a volumCv 
of paintings of the plants of JB^gypt^ Ara^ 
biay and 'Ethiopia y which had been done foe 
the ufe of a Sultan^ 
