0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

MEDICAL SCIENCE AMONG THE ARABS. I 75
year 875, and was provided with abundant means for its
maintenance. " He made it a rule of the hospital that
neither soldier nor slave should be received in it; he
erected also two baths, one for men and the other
for women, and bequeathed both of them to the hospital
and other institutions. He commanded further, that when
a patient was brought there, his clothes and money should
be taken from him and given into the charge of the hospital
steward, then that other clothes should be put on him, that
he should be put to bed, have some food given him, and
that he should have medicine, diet, and professional attendance
until he recovered ; then after receiving a chicken and
a cake to eat, he should be discharged, taking with him his
money and clothes."* In the hospital there was a department
for people of unsound mind. This institution does
not seem to have existed for long; in MACRIZI'S time it
w r as almost completely forgotten.
He then mentions KAFUR'S hospital, which was erected
in the town of Misr, in the year 957, and the one which
was named after the street El Magafir and apparently only
existed for a short time. A hospital existed in Fostath as
early as the 10th century; another, to which for a short
time IBN ABU OSEIBIA gave his medical services, owed its
origin to NASR SALADIN.
The most remarkable of all these foundations was the
.'•- great Mansurian hospital at Cairo. The Sultan, EL
MANSUR GlLAVUN constructed this at great expense
by altering a noble castle which had up to that time
served as the residence of a princess. The foundation
walls, the stones and marble columns of that part of the
castle which was pulled dowii, were used in building the
hospital. All artificers of Misr and Cairo were compelled
to work at it and were not allowed during the time it was
being built to undertake other work. The Sultan rode
daily to the site, inspected the workmen, even assisted
* MACRIZI in WUSTENFELD'S translation, op. cit. S. 30.