510  Pharmacy  and  Medicine  in  Egypt.     { ^VeS£rPi9iT' 
Latin,  as  "  Liber  Magnae  Colletions  Simplicissime  Allmentorum  et 
Medicamentorum." 
Abu  Ali  Alhussain  Ben  Sina,  known  as  Avicenna  (980-1037  a.d.). 
He  was  the  "  Hippocrates  and  Aristotle  of  the  Arabs,  and  the  most 
extraordinary  man  that  nation  produced,  well  known  to  all  people 
in  all  ages,  and  his  works  even  superseded  those  of  Hippocrates  and 
Galen."  He  wrote  several  books  on  drugs  and  medicine,  and  his 
"  Canon  Medicinal  "  was  most  complete  and  gained  for  him  a  great 
reputation  in  medicine  and  surgery,  and  it  was  the  leading  text-book 
in  European  universities  as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century.  His  scien- 
tific skill  enabled  him  to  introduce  and  prepare  new  chemical  remedies 
and  form  a  great  many  combinations  which  are  in  use  even  at  the 
present  time,  which  gave  him  wide  and  everlasting  fame. 
Ismail  El  Jurjani.  His  book  gave  a  complete  description  of 
urine  examination  and  the  most  complete  directions  for  detecting 
sugars  and  foreign  matters  in  urine. 
Ali  Ibu  El  Abbas  wrote  several  books  on  pharmacy  which  were 
the  standard  authority  in  Europe  in  the  tenth  century. 
Moses  Ben  Maimon  (called  Maimonides),  the  most  pious,  loyal, 
and  faithful  physician.  His  prayer  is  memorized  by  most  pharmacists 
and  physicians.  He  is  called  the  Second  Moses.  Died  in  Cairo, 
1204  a.d.,  and  buried  in  the  Holy  Land. 
Abul  Qasim,  known  as  Abulcasis,  the  most  popular  physician  of 
the  tenth  century,  and  the  best-known  Arabian  writer  on  drugs  in 
mediaeval  Europe.  His  "  Manual  Grab-Eldiu  or  Apothecary  "  was 
referred  to  by  pharmacists  in  their  preparations.  His  book  on 
pharmacognosy  which  bears  his  name  was  printed  in  twenty-six 
editions  in  the  sixteenth  century  and  was  standard  authority  on  what 
would  now  be  called  materia  medica.  The  first  English  Pharmaco- 
poeia compiled  and  issued  by  the  College  of  Physicians  in  London 
owed  its  big  volume  and  most  botanical  information  to  his  wide 
knowledge.  He  was  the  first  physician  who  divided  purgatives  into 
very  mild  or  laxative,  as  tamarind,  prune,  fig,  cassia,  manna ;  mild  or 
simple  purgatives,  as  absinthium,  rhubarb,  senna,  aloes  ;  strong- purga- 
tives or  drastics,  as  jalap,  scammony,  colocynth,  colchicum  His 
manuals  were  very  valuable,  and  the  esteem  in  which  his  works  were 
held  was  shown  by  the  fact  that  a  Latin  translation  was  one  of  the 
mediaeval  books  printed  in  the  sixteenth  century  as  "  Leber  Theo- 
rical  nec  non  Practicae  Alsaharavy."  His  book  on  surgery,  in  two 
volumes,  was  published  at  Venice  (1497),  at  Basel  (1541),  and  at 
