Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/241

 Djondisabour medical school the Bakhtichous were not the only ones who attained considerable distinction. John Mesué the Elder, for example, who was a Nestorian Christian and the son of an apothecary, became more famous than any member of that family. He not only did his full share of the translating, but he was also a prolific author and a very faithful and efficient teacher, Galen's writings furnishing the basis of his lectures. He lived to be about eighty years of age, his death occurring in 857 A. D. Most of his writings have been lost. Of the twenty or more which have come down to our time those bearing the following titles deserve to receive special mention:—

Book of Fevers. On the Different kinds of Food and Drink. On Venesection and Scarifications. On Tubercular Leprosy. On Abnormal Prominence of the Abdomen. On Purgative Remedies. On Baths. On the Regulation of Diet. On Poisons and Poisoning. On Vertigo. On the Treatment of Sterility. On Dentifrices and Gargles.

Sabour ben Sahl, whose death occurred in 869 A. D., was also connected with the hospital at Djondisabour. He was distinguished on account of his special knowledge of the properties of simple drugs and their combinations. He was also the author of the exhaustive formulary known as Acrabadin Kebir—probably the first one of its kind, says Le Clerc, of which history makes any mention. This formulary or dispensatory—of which a large and a small edition existed—was in general use in all the hospitals, physicians' offices, etc., of that time.

Still another most distinguished physician and author of medical treatises received his training at the Djondisabour