Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/132

124 and cold medicines were borrowed from India, where they still prevail. Ætius, a physician of Mesopotamia, who flourished in the fifth century, and whose works on the diseases of women are still extant in Greek, mentions some drugs, as Indian nuts, sandal-wood, cocoa-nuts, and other products of India. The Ægian physician, Paulus Ægineta, who is said to have first noticed the cathartic quality of Khubarb, and who lived in the seventh century, refers to certain Indian herbs in his work. In the eighth century, and probably in the century following, the natives of India practised as physicians in Baghdad, and employed many Indian drugs in their practice.

We find from the books written by Arabian and European travellers of bygone days, that about 600, the Arabs, who were the most forward and enterprising nation of their time, used to bring various articles of merchandise to India from their own country, and from countries lying on the east coast of Africa, and took with them from the Malabar coast in Southern India spices and medicinal drugs, and so spread a knowledge of these articles in the adjoining countries of Europe. This state of things continued for a long time, while the Medical Science