Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/247



the second, not to do any harm to the human race. Every physician has registered an oath that he will never administer a poison."

"Those are two excellent laws," remarked the Caliph; and he proceeded to load Honein with presents.

Among those who were associated with Honein in his work of translating Greek medical books into Arabic there are three whose names also deserve to be remembered. They are: his son Isaac; his nephew Hobeïch; and a Christian Greek named Costa ben Luca, whose residence was at Baalbek. To men of the present time all these names of oriental physicians are, as a rule, mere meaningless words, conveying no idea of an important relationship to the evolution of medicine. During the ninth and tenth centuries of the present era, however, and indeed for many years subsequent to that time, they were accorded by the physicians of that period almost as much honor for the part which they took in furthering the revival of medicine among the Arabs as was given to Honein himself. It seems therefore appropriate that at least a brief account of the lives of these men and of the work which they did should be given here.

Isaac received his education from his father Honein, and soon after reaching manhood he was set to work translating from the Greek into both Syrian and Arabic—two sister languages. He was a man of great intelligence, and was thought by many to be the equal of his father in the knowledge of Greek, Syriac and Arabic. He also had, like his father, the good fortune to find favor with the rulers of that period. He died in 912 A. D. as the result of a stroke of cerebral apoplexy. In addition to his translations he wrote original treatises on the following topics:—

Simple Medicaments. Origins of Medicine. Correctives of Purgative Remedies. Treatment by Cutting Instruments. The means of Preserving the Health and the Memory.

Hobeïch was the son of Honein's sister. The date of his birth is not known. He received his training in the lan