Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
November,  1915. 
Pharmacy  and  Medicine  in  Egypt.  509 
much  as  the  official  pharmacopoeias  and  other  official  books,  as  well 
as  the  United  States  Dispensatory  and  "  Remington's  Practice  of 
Pharmacy  "  and  other  medical  and  pharmaceutical  books,  even  as 
late  as  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Most  of  the  pharma- 
copoeias of  civilized  countries,  without  exaggeration,  are  based  on  the 
Arabian  principles  and  botanical  knowledge.  Oser  says  "  the  heavy 
hand  of  the  Arabians  is  sensed  in  the  enormous  bulk  of  the  United 
States  Pharmacopoeia." 
Arabian  Writers. — The  following  is  a  very  brief  mention  of  a 
few  Arabian  writers,  only  to  give  one  an  idea  of  the  great  and  able 
authors  that  Egypt  and  other  Arabic  countries  have  produced : 
Abdullah  Gaber  Ben  Hayyan,  commonly  called  Gaber,  one  of  the 
most  famous  Arabian  chemists,  lived  in  the  eighth  century.  He  was 
credited  with  being  the  originator  of  chemistry,  but  this  was  based 
upon  insufficient  information,  as  the  first  chemical  knowledge  was 
derived  from  the  temple  laboratories  of  the  ancient  Egyptians.  He 
was  acquainted  with  alum,  green  vitriol,  saltpetre,  sal  ammoniac, 
corrosive  sublimate,  red  precipitate,  and  was  the  discoverer  of  oil 
of  vitriol,  aqua  regia,  muriatic  and  nitric  acids,  and  for  the  use  of 
which  he  gave  directions.  He  extracted  and  purified  his  chemicals 
by  the  process  of  distillation,  sublimation,  and  filtration.  He  was  a 
great  man  and  has  done  more  for  chemistry  than  his  predecessors, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  gave  most  of  his  valuable  time  and  great 
wisdom  in  an  effort  to  change  lead,  copper,  and  iron  into  metallic 
gold  or  silver,  and  in  his  search  for  the  elixir  of  life,  this  latter  being 
the  result  of  his  philosophical  follies. 
Abu  Bakr  Mohamed  El  Razi,  known  as  Rfrazes.  He  was  the 
first  physician  who  described  smallpox,  measles,  Asiatic  cholera,  and 
epidemics  in  an  accurate  manner.  He  was  a  greater  chemist  than  a 
physician,  and  he  was  the  first  to  declare  that  "  he  who  knows  no 
chemistry  does  not  deserve  the  name  of  a  philosopher."  He  was  a 
clear  thinker,  a  ready  operator,  and  a  man  of  remarkable  foresight 
and  proved  experience.  Died  925  a.d.  His  chief  medical  work, 
"  El  Mansuri.  Chemical  works.  Perfectionis  Liber.  Duodecirri  Lebri 
de  Arte  Chemica.  Liber  Lapidis  Minor  and  Confirmatio  Artis 
Chemial." 
Abu  Mohamed-Ibn  Baitar  died  1248  a.d.  His  great  work  in 
materia  medica  in  which  he  gave  a  full  description  and  constituents 
of  1400  drugs,  of  which  300  were  new,  has  been  unsatisfactorily 
translated  into  German.    Other  books  have  been  translated  into 
