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MEDICAL SCIENCE AMONG THE ARABS. I 79
ance with midwifery, as ALI BEN ABBAS advised them to
do. In the apothecaries' shops they had the opportunity
of becoming acquainted with the preparation of medicines.
The Arabs introduced apothecaries' shops; it
seems that they were made acquainted with them through
the Nestorians.* The Arab apothecaries dealt not only
in drugs (notably sandalwood, on which account they
were also named Szandalani), perfumery, cosmetic, and
other applications, but also were occupied in compounding
drugs into medicines: and they introduced dispensaries.
They deserve commendation for their systematic use of
distillation and for the discovery of certain remedies.
Their chemical and botanical studies were very useful to
them in their work. Botany formed, as HADJI KHALFA
says,f a science ancillary to medicine. Many doctors
were zealous botanists; it is narrated of RACHID EDDIN
IBN ASZURI that he was attended on his botanical excursions
by a painter, who made pictures of the plants in
their various stages of development.^ MUHAMMED BEN
ALI BEN FARAK, the body-physician of the prince of
Cadiz, is said even to have laid out a botanical garden.§
The Arabian doctors strove not only to acquire a thorough
knowledge of medicine and natural science, but showed a
keen interest in the teachings of the philosophers, and were
at the head of all liberal intellectual efforts.
The names of AVICENNA, of AVERROES, and of MOSES
JVIAIMONIDES are almost more conspicuous in the history
of philosophy than in that of medicine. The groundwork
of their philosophical ideas was formed by the system of
ARISTOTLE, which they carried to a further development in
various directions. While AVICENNA was led by this path
to a teleological Theism which recommended him to the
* K. SPRENGEL: Geschichte der Botanik. Leipzig 1817, i, S. 205.
f HADJI KHALFA: Lexicon bibliographicum et encyclopa:dicum ed. G.
FLUGEL, London 1845, T - iv, p. 114. /
X HADJI KHALFA : op. cit. T. i, p. 227, No. 36I.-LECLE.