Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/473

Rh he advises a vaginal tampon of wool, or of a blown up sheep's bladder. Avicenna, the author of the "Canons," was a medical rather than a surgical writer, and his text-book was used for nearly five centuries after it was written.

Bagdad and Cordova had now become the destination of many a European scholar. The number of anatomical terms of Arabian origin translated into Latin, according to Hyrtl, is surprising, and this more especially in view of his assertion that "the Arabs paid very little attention to anatomy, and, of course, because of the prohibition of the Koran, added nothing to it." He continues:

This is a terse summing up of the general influence of Arabian medicine. Taken as a whole, the Arabs were copyists and dialecticians; by their very virtues of erudition and scholarship they impressed upon their medieval successors the supremity of Galenical tradition rather than the desire for anatomical and bedside inquiry into the cause of disease.

Constantine Africanus, who was first a traveler and a student, next a professor in the University of Salerno, and finally a Benedictine monk in the great abbey of Monte Cassino, is the connecting link between Arabian and western medicine. His familiarity with oriental languages, and his connection later with the great Benedictine order celebrated for its libraries and zeal in copying books, gave him unique opportunities for the translation and circulation of his medical writings. He was born at Carthage early in the eleventh century, and died near its close. After his travels he acted as physician and secretary to Duke Robert of Salerno, and was made professor of medicine at the university. After teaching for ten years he retired to the monastery, obtaining there both the quiet and the material assistance which he needed in order to pass his heritage of knowledge on to succeeding generations. The "Liber Pantegni," a translation of Ali-Ben-el Abbas, as well as certain works of Hippocrates and Galen, were among his best-known books. His original work is better known through the writings of his students Afflacius, Bartholemew and numerous others.

In view of this it is a seeming contradiction to have Gurlt assert that the surgery of the Salernitian school was not a continuation of Arabian surgery and that the surgeons of Salerno were not influenced by the Arabian commentators. Yet he cites Roger's writings in evidence, and declares that such authorities as are quoted come directly from the Greek, while a good portion of the work rests on the writer's own experiences.

Contrary to popular belief, surgery at this time was not an unlearned profession, for there were many surgeons connected with the early