Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/263

 at Fostath, near Cairo, Egypt. As a means of gaining his livelihood he engaged in the business of trafficking in precious stones, continuing his studies at the same time and carrying on a certain amount of medical practice. Not long afterward he gained the favor of the Vizir El Fadhl Beissâny, the friend of Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and was by him appointed one of the Court physicians. This enabled him to give up entirely his commercial business. He prospered in the practice of medicine and was very highly esteemed in the community in which he lived. His death occurred in 1204 A. D.

Among the books which he wrote (generally in Arabic) on medical subjects, the following deserve to receive special mention:—

I. Commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates.

II. A work known as "Aphorisms of Maimonides" (borrowed partly from Hippocrates and partly from Galen).

III. Résumé of the writings of Galen.

IV. A letter relating to the subject of personal hygiene.

V.-IX. Treatises on asthma; on hemorrhoids; on venoms and poisons in general; on drugs; and on forbidden articles of diet.

X. A translation of one of Avicenna's works.

Neuburger speaks in very favorable terms of the medical writings of Maimonides, and adds that he also wrote a treatise which bears the title: "Guide to Those in Perplexity"—a work which aims to reconcile reason and faith. The book has been translated into French by Munk; and the treatise on poisons has also been translated into the same language by J. M. Rabbinowicz (Paris, 1867).

Speaking of the remarkable manner in which philosophy and medicine had flourished in Spain during the tenth and eleventh centuries, under the reigns of Haken II. and his successors, Ernest Renan says:

The love of science and of things beautiful had established, in that privileged corner of the world, a degree of tolerance that can scarcely be matched in modern times. Christians, Jews, Musulmans all spoke the same language, sang the same poems, and took