0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

164 THE MIDDLE AGES.
deserves recognition all the more, inasmuch as the authors
lived at a time, when the development of medicine was
nowhere making any progress.
The Arabian doctors gave great attention to the examination
of the body of the patient. They noted all the
symptoms of disease, but attached most importance to the
character of the pulse and the peculiarities of the urine.
They attained to a remarkable ability in prognosis. They J
paid' a fitting attention* to dietetics and enlarged the
pharmacopoeia by the addition of numerous remedies. They
were zealously anxious to discover the causes of disease
and obtained some success in this quest. AVENZOAR drew
attention to the Sarcoptes hominis, pointing out its relation
to scabies.t ABULKASEM left behind him an excellent
description of the Dracunculus medinensis and the conditions
of disease arising therefrom.J Special pathologyhas
to thank the Arabian doctors for many contributions:
they gave valuable information as to the causes and
character of certain diseases, for example, the malignant ;
epidemics, small-pox, measles and other. exanthemata,^
F consumption, || face-ache^ etc. On the other hand, operative
surgery certainly lost ground among the Arabs. The
neglect of anatomy and the dislike peculiar to Orientals
of any interference with the human body which is attended .
with bleeding were to blame for this. Caustics and cauteries
took the place of the knife. Where surgeons incised
before, they now were satisfied with cauterizing and
burning. Even ABULKASEM deplored the decline of
* Cf. EL-ANTERI'S admirable verses in v. HAMMER-PURGSTALL op. cit. Bd.
vii, S. 499.
t RASPAIL: " Memoire sur l'histoire naturelle de 1 insecte de la gale in the
Bull. gen. de therap., Paris 1834, T. vii, p. 169.—F. HEBRA (Acute Exantheme
u. HaUtkrankheiten'in VIUCHOW'S Handbuch, Bd. iii, S. 413, Erlangen i860)
did not "believe that AVENZOAR was acquainted with the Sarcoptes.
X ABULKASEM; Chirurgie ii, 93, Edit. LECLERC, Paris i86i,p. 230.
§ RHAZES: De variolis et morbillis, Edit. CHANNING, London 1766.
|| WALDENBUHG: Die Tuberkulose, Berlin 1869, S. 25.
•f AVICENNA: Canon iii, fen. 1, tract. 1, c. 12.