( 17 ) 
CHAP. 2. 
General ftate of Botanical knowledge during the 
dominion of the Saracens — Corrupt tranjlations 
^ Diofcorides— Avicenna — Afchard, or Ebn 
Beithar, the capital Writer in Botany among the 
Arabians— Schola Salernitana-— Englifh Wri-- 
ters during the middle ages — Henry of Hunt- 
ingdon — Arviel — Bray — Legle, or Gil- 
bertus Anglicus — Ardern- — Daniel-— Bollar— 
Horman-—Afo'6'. of anonymous Authors — ^ranj-* 
lations and editions of Apuleius and Macer, in 
ufe in England at the invention of printing— ^ 
Specimen of the fuperjlition ^t/' Apuleius. 
MIDDLE AGES. 
LEARNING and fcience follow the 
fate of empires. On the decline of 
thofe of Greece and Rome, and during that 
period in which the Saxons were eftablifh- 
ing themfelves in Britain , medical know- 
ledge pa/Ted into the hands of the trium- 
phant Saracens. Bagdat, under the Eaftern 
Caliphs, became the feat of learning. 
Much of the Greek phyfic and philofophy 
w^as corruptly tranflated by the command 
of MufTelmen 5 among whom at length it 
Vol. L C received 
