Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/258

 *known fact that at all periods of her history Egypt has been afflicted with ophthalmias to a much greater degree than any of the other countries of the Mediterranean basin. The great wealth accumulated in Damascus, the large number of hospitals which were located in the city, and the attractiveness of the town as a place of residence undoubtedly had much to do with the fact that it attained at this period so great popularity as a centre of medical activity.

Spain.—During the tenth century of the present era the Moslem reign in Spain flourished greatly under the two enlightened rulers of the Ommiade Dynasty—Abdurrahman Ennasser and Hakem, and medicine shared fully in this prosperity. During Abdurrahman's reign the Emperor Romanus at Constantinople sent an embassy to Cordova in Spain, and among the gifts which they took with them for the Prince, was a copy of the treatise of Dioscorides in the original Greek, illustrated by marvelously beautiful paintings of the different medicinal plants. But there was nobody in Cordova at that time who could read Greek. Accordingly, Abdurrahman begged the Emperor to send him a man who was familiar with both the Greek and the Latin tongues, and it was in answer to this request that the monk Nicholas was sent to Cordova (951 A. D.). Working in conjunction with several of the most distinguished physicians of that city he succeeded in identifying nearly all of the plants mentioned by Dioscorides.

Among the physicians of Arab, Persian or Jewish extraction who, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, practiced their profession in Spain and attained considerable celebrity, the following deserve to receive special mention here: Abulcasis, Avenzoar, Averroes and Maimonides.

Abulcasis.—Abulcasis is universally credited with being the greatest surgeon of whom the Arabs may rightfully boast. He was born at Zahra near Cordova in 936 A. D., and his death occurred 1013 A. D. Quite early in his professional career (before he had reached his twenty-fifth year) he was appointed one of Abdurrahman's private