290 
Original Communications. 
East, the doctrines of Galen are admitted as implicitly as in 
the days of their greatest glory. The credit of the Arabians 
is not confined to the mere preservation of the knowledge of 
the ancients. They made considerable additions to the reme- 
dies before known, introduced various new processes, pre- 
pared the way for the effectual application of chemistry to 
the Pharmaceutical art, and laid the foundation of that dis- 
tinction between the professions of Medicine and Pharmacy 
which has subsequently tended so much to the advantage of 
both. 
With the lust of conquest, the Arabians carried with them 
the spirit of improvement also into the West of Europe ; and 
their dominions in Spain became as distinguished for the cul- 
tivation of all the sciences of the age as their earlier empire 
in the East. This enlightened spirit spread even beyond their 
boundaries into the dark barbarism of the North, which their 
arms were unable to penetrate. Medicine was among the 
sciences which now returned to Europe from their long exile. 
Schools were established, a collection of works upon medi- 
cines was published, and practical Pharmacy began to take 
root in the more civilized portions of the continent. 
It may be readily conceived, however, that both Materia 
Medica and Pharmacy were in a most imperfect state. Life 
had been breathed into them, and the embryo began to evince 
the organizing movements which were going on within it ; 
but the soil in which it had been planted was yet too sterile 
to afford the food requisite for its rapid or perfect develop- 
ment. It was under these circumstances, that the conquest of 
Constantinople by the Turks, about the middle of the fifteenth 
century, opened the sources of a fertilizing flood, which gra- 
dually spread over Europe, and brought the languishing germs 
into energetic and productive action. The exiled Greeks 
carried into Italy the stores of ancient learning which had for 
centuries been locked up in the Eastern capital, and by teach- 
ing their language afforded a key which rendered these stores 
accessible. The spirit which had been awakened by the 
Arabians, thus found abundant materials for the employment 
