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MEDICAL SCIENCE AMONG THE ARABS. I 73
of the Arabs in Baghdad and other places came into
prominence.
In Baghdad as early as the gth century there existed a
hospital and medical school.* The Vizier An BEN
ISSA in the year 914 founded a second. He learned
to recognize the want of doctors and of medicines
during an epidemic which prevailed among the
troops and throughout the country, and decided to do
something to improve this state of affairs. He commanded
that the sick should be visited daily by the doctors, and
should have medicine and food given them, and he caused!\a
new hospital to be opened. When he was told that .•<
certain villages, chiefly inhabited by Jews, were entirely *?{•
without medical assistance, he replied that the unbelievers
also must be cared for. At the instancet of SlNAN BEN-
TSABET BEN CORRA yet other hospitals were erected in
Baghdad. The rich bequests of SEDJAH, the mother of
the Caliph MOTTAWAKL, which were intended for charitable
purposes, afforded the means for this. The largest and most
famous of these hospitals was established in the year 977
by ADHAD ED DAULA, an Emir of the Buides dynasty, or
perhaps having fallen into decline (being of earlier origin)
was by him restored and its usefulness extended.J According
to the statement of IBN ABU OSEIBIA, RHAZES is sai4
to have assisted in its original foundation, inasmuch as he
selected a situation for it suitable in hygienic respects.$
To this hospital 24 doctors were appointed, who ranked.
according to their ability. There were specialists among
them, some devoting themselves only to the treatment of
fevers, others to the healing of wounds, to the reduction
of dislocations, or to diseases of the eyes. The sick were**•/?.
separated into different sections, according to the nature of
their ailments. Noteworthy observations made by the
•f - .*•
* M. STEINSCHNEIDER in VIRCHOW'S Archiv, Bd. 52, S. 372.
t From his biography in LECLERC, op. cit. i, 365, 559 et seq.
_ X v. HAMMER-PURGSTALL, op. cit. iv., 358.—WUSTENFELD : Gesch. d. Arab.
Arzte, S. 42, Anm.—LECLERC, op. cit. i., 561.