PATHOLOGY. 19 
drophobia very well; and alfo Tome difeafes peculiar to 
eaftern countries, as the ignis perilous, vena medinenfis, 
See. and he fil'd noticed the difeafe called fpina ventofa. 
Rhazes had the reputation of being a ikilful alchemift; 
the art of chemiftry, in fa£t, originated with the Arabians; 
and Rhazes is the firft, as Dr. Freind has fliown, who men¬ 
tions the ufe of chemical preparations in medicine. He 
has a chapter on the qualifications of a phyfician ; and a 
Angular trail on quacks and impoftors, in which he has 
pourtrayed that claft of pretenders to the life ; and his 
detail of their pretenfions (flows that they were at leaft as 
numerous, and ingenious in their contrivances of 
cheatery, as in more recent times. Rhazes lived to the 
age of eighty, and loft his fight: he died in the year 932. 
His works that have come down to us, through the me¬ 
dium of tranflations in Latin, are, 1. A fort of common¬ 
place book, entitled Continent, or Libri Continentes. a. A 
much more perfect work, the Libri Decern, ad' Alnutnforem, 
publifhed at Venice, 1510. 3. Six books of Aphorifms, 
publiflied under the title of Liber de Secretis, gui Aphorif- 
morum appellatur, Bononiae, 1489. 4. A trail on the 
fmall-pox and meafles, entitled, De Pejlilentia. This laft 
was tranflated by Dr. Mead in 1747, and by Mr. Chan- 
ning in 1766. As it is a fubjeil fo much in difpute, we 
(flail give an extrail from the very firft chapter. “ As to 
thofe phyficians who affirm, that the mod excellent Galen 
lias made no mention of the fmall-pox, and therefore that 
lie did not know this diftemper; furely they have either 
never read his works at all, or only very curforily; nay, 
,moft of them do not know, whether what he plainly fays 
of it is to be underftood of that difeafe. For Galen, in a 
certain treatife, fays, this drug does good this and that 
way, and alfo againft the fmall-pox. And in the beginning 
of the fourteenth book, of pulfes, that the blood is putre¬ 
fied in an extraordinary degree, and that the inflammation 
runs fo high, that it burns the fkin ; fo that the fmall-pox 
and peftilent carbuncle are bred in it, and quiteconfume 
it. And in the ninth treatife of the book of the Ufe of 
the Parts, he obferves, that the fuperfluous parts of ali¬ 
ments, which are not turned into blood, and remain in the 
members, putrefy, and in time increafing do ferment; 
whence, at laft, are generated the peftilential carbuncle, the 
fmall-pox, and confluent inflammations. Laftly, in the 
fourth part of his Commentary upon the Timteus of Plato, 
he fays, that the ancients gave the name cp\iyp.otrt to every 
thing which produces rednefs,as the carbuncle and fmall- 
pox ; and that thefe difeafes are bred in thofe in whom 
bile abounds. But, as for thofe who allege; that he has 
propofed no remedy or cure, nor explained the nature of 
this diftemper, they indeed fay what is true : for he men¬ 
tions no more than what we have cited. But God knows 
whether he might not have done it in fome other books, 
which have not yet appeared in Arabic.” 
Avicenna’s Canon Medicines, or General Syftem of Me¬ 
dicine and Surgery, was for many ages celebrated through 
all the fchools of phyfic. It was principally compiled 
from the writings of Galen and Rhazes. The latter had, 
in difficult labours, recommended the fillet to aflift in 
the extrafilion of the foetus 5 and, for the fame purpofe, 
Avicenna recommends the forceps. He deferibes the 
compofition of feveral cofmetics to polifh the fkin, and 
make the hair growq or fall off. See the article Avi¬ 
cenna, vol. ii. 
Albucafis flourifhed about a hundred years after Avi¬ 
cenna : the date of his birth is not known, but he died 
in 1106. He is chiefly eminent as a furgeon ; and, al¬ 
though much of what he has left on the fubjedt of his 
art is copied from Rhazes, from Paulus -Eginasta, and 
other preceding writers; he has many original obferva- 
tions ; and by thofe who love to fee the firft dawnings of 
improvement in fcience, his works will be dill turned 
over with pleafure. He infilled on the neceflity of a fur- 
geon’s being fkilled in anatomy, to enable him to ope¬ 
rate with fuccefs; he alfo held it to be equally neceflary 
that he fhould be acquainted with the materia medica, or 
the properties of the medicines employed in curing dif¬ 
eafes ; and inveighs againft thofe who undertake for gain 
the cure of difeafes, of the nature and caufes of which 
they are unacquainted. It appears from his writings, 
that he extracted polypi from the noftrils, performed the 
operation of bronchotomy, and ufed a preparation fimilar 
to the lapis infernalis, as a cauftic. He enumerates a 
tremendous lift of operations, fufficient to fill us with 
horror. The hot iron and cauteries v.'ere favourite re¬ 
medies of the Arabians ; and, in inveterate pains, they 
repofed, like the F.gyptians and eaftern Aliatics, great 
confidence in burning the part. He deferibes accurately 
the manner of tapping in afeites; mentions feveral kinds 
of jnllrunients for drawing blood ; and has left a more 
ample and corredl delineation of lurgical inftruments than 
any of the ancients. He gives various obftetrical direc¬ 
tions for extrafling the feetus in cafes of difficult labour. 
He mentions the bronchocele, or prominent tumour on 
the neck, which, he tells us, was mofl frequent among 
the female fex. We are alfo informed by this writer, 
that the delicacy of the Arabian women did noUpermit 
male furgeons to perform lithotomy on females 5 but, 
when neceflary, it was executed by one of their own fex. 
Of Avenzoar nearly all that is known has been com¬ 
municated under his article. The date of his birth is 
uncertain ; he is faid to have lived to the great age of 
135 years ; but, as he had a fon of the fame name and pro- 
feflion, it is very probable that the age of both is in¬ 
cluded in this term. He (or his fon) died at flforocco 
in 1166, or at Seville in 1162. Avenzoar prepared his 
own medicines, reduced luxated bones, and performed 
other chirurgical operations. The work by;which he is 
principally known is a compendium of the praflice of 
medicine; in which fome difeafes are deferibed not found 
in other writers. It includes a number of cafes, candidly, 
it fhould feem, related, as the author does not conceal 
thofe in which he was unfuccefsful. See Avenzoar, 
vol. ii. 
Thus we fee, that, in confequence of the general decay 
of learning in the weftern parts of the w'orld, the Greek 
writers were entirely neglefled, becaufe nobody could 
read the language ; and the Arabians, though principally 
copiers from them, enjoyed all the reputation that was 
due to the others. The Arabian phyfic was introduced 
into Europe very early, with the mofl extravagant ap- 
plaufe : and not only this, but other branches of their 
learning, came into repute in the weft ; infomuch that 
in the nth century, theftudies of natural philofophy and 
the liberal arts were called “ the fludies of the Saracens.” 
This was owing partly to the crufades undertaken againft 
them by the European princes ; and partly to the lettle- 
ment of the Moors in Spain, and the intercourfe they 
and other Arabians had with the Italians. For, long be¬ 
fore the time of the crufades, probably in the middle of 
the 7th century, there were Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin, 
profeffors of phyfic fettled in Italy and Spain. The uni- 
verfity of Cordova, which had been founded by 
Alhakem, became the molt celebrated in the world, and 
maintained its repute for a long courfe of years. As 
early as the tenth century, Cordova could boaft of the 
largeft library in the weft; a library of 250,ooo'books, 
and of which the catalogue is faid to have filled forty-four 
volumes. In the twelfth century, there were no lefs than 
feventy public libraries in Spain : Cordova had produced 
150 authors, Almeria 52, and Murcia 62. At Seville, at 
Toledo, and at Murcia, academies were alfo eftablifhed, 
which continued to flourifh during the whole period of 
the dominion of the Arabians. 
In the tenth century, the rich and maritime city of 
Salerno, in the Neapolitan territory, arrefted the attention 
of the predatory Muflulmen. Frequently engaged either 
in war or in negociation, they became mixed with the 
Chriftians, and gradually communicated their literary 
attainments; and, in the year 802, Charlemagne founded 
in Salerno a fchool, which in procefs of time^became the 
moll 
