SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 
37 
scientific method of discussion, which has above all things contributed to erect the edifice 
of modern science. 
If, however, on certain points, like those just referred to, the Arabs were on a level Arab Specula- 
with what was taught by the ancient Greeks, in regard to other matters concerning the?,' 0 0N 
ocean their imagination carried them away from the truth For example, the interpreta- T ides. 
tions they gave of the cause of the rise and fall of the tide were widely removed from 
the more correct ideas held by the ancients. In the chapter where Mas‘udl recapitulates 
the various explanations of tidal phenomena we find one hypothesis only more improbable 
than another. 1 
Schems’ ed-Din-Mohammed of Damascus (El Dimishki) 2 advanced a theory in vogue 
in geological speculations ; according to him, when the sun is in the signs of the zodiac 
in the south, as it is nearer to the earth, it exercises upon that hemisphere a much 
greater attraction, and, for that reason, the liquid particles are collected in that region. 
He thus vaguely foreshadowed the existence of the great ocean which is situated in that 
part of the globe. 3 
The influence of the Arabs on the scientific knowledge of the later Middle Ages was Arab 
considerable. This was due to the additions which their learned men made to the Tran ' slat ~ 
from the Greek 
knowdedge of nature, and, less directly, by the introduction, through their translations, translated into 
of the works of Greek authors. In fact, it was from the translations from Arabic into L ' VTrx ' 
Latin that the schoolmen became acquainted with ancient writings, chiefly those of 
Aristotle and Ptolemy, which played so important a part in the Middle Ages. 
The schoolmen gave an impetus to the study of ancient literature, and, although they Views of the 
contributed but little to positive science, it is none the less true that they initiated a Sai0OLMEX 
knowledge of Arabic and Greek authors, and thus powerfully helped forward the progress 
of science at the time immediately preceding the great geographical discoveries of the 
fifteenth century. The ideas of Hipparchus prevailed in the scholastic Middle Ages. 
The earth was a sphere ; the schoolmen did not attempt to measure it as the ancients and 
Arabs had done, but accepted the calculations of Eratosthenes, and especially those of 
Ptolemy. In the Iberian peninsula the views of Mela, which were opposed to those of 
Hipparchus and Ptolemy, were very popular, and had much influence in leading up to 
the voyages of the Portuguese during the fifteenth century. 
Roger Bacon 4 adopted Aristotle’s view that there was no great distance between Roger Bacon. 
Spain and India opposite to the habitable world. He makes no definite statement 
1 Mas'udi, op. cit., vol. i. ch. xi. One story is the following : — “ The angel to whose care the seas are confided 
immerges the heel of Iris foot into the sea at the extremity of China, and, as the sea is swelled, the flow takes plat ■ 
Then he raises his foot from the sea, and the water returns into its former place, and this i3 the ebb. They demonstrate 
this by an example ; if a vessel is only half full of water, and you put your hand into it, the water will fill the whole 
vessel, and when you take out the hand the water will be as before. Some think that the angel puts only the great 
toe of his right foot into the water, and that this is the cause of the tide ” (p. 295). : Died in 1327 
s Schems’ ed-Din de Damas, Cosmographie, trad, par M. A. F. Mehren, p. 4, Copenhagen, 1874. 
4 1214 to 1294 a.d. 
