either in the original Arabic or in a trans- | title-page is from Hain's Repert. Bibl.:— lation. "Liber Canonis primus quem princeps AboAvicenna is chiefly known as a physician, hali Abiusceni de Medicina edidit. Transand of his medical works the most celebrated latus a Magistro Gerhardo Cremonensi in is that entitled "Kitábu-l-kánúni-fi-t-tibbi" | Toleto ab Arabico in Latinum." At the end ("The Book of the Canon of Medicine "). This is one of the few Arabic medical works that have been published in the original language; an edition in that language having appeared at Rome in 1593, in three thin folio volumes, which are commonly bound together in one. It contains merely the Arabic text, without translation, notes, or preface; and is printed from a manuscript in the library at Florence, marked No. 215 in Assemani's Catalogue. The type is good, and the book is not very scarce. The third volume contains a work on logic, physics, and metaphysics. This is the only complete Arabic edition of the Canon, but parts of it have been published at various times. The beginning of the second book was edited by Peter Kirstenius, with notes and a Latin translation, and was printed with his own Arabic types at Breslau, 1609, fol.; it is not very well spoken off. An extract from the fourth book was published at Augsburg, 1674, 4to., by G. H. Welsch, with the title "Exercitatio de Vena Medinensi, ad Mentem Ebusinæ, sive de Dracunculis Veterum, &c." It contains only two short chapters of the Arabic text, with a double Latin version, and a very copious commentary, which displays immense learning. Sprengel has inserted a short extract from the first book, with a German translation and a few notes, in the third part of his Beiträge zur Geschichte der Medicin," Halle, 1794-96, 8vo. A very short passage from the third book was published by J. S. Wittich, 1803, 8vo., with the title "Interpretatio Loci Arabici ex Opere Avicennæ de Superfœtatione," with a Latin translation and commentary; it is, however, worth little or nothing. (Schnurrer, Biblioth. Arab. §§ 393-96.) The Canon has been translated into Hebrew, and exists in MS. in several European libraries. A Hebrew version, supposed to be by Rabbi Nathan Amathi, was published at Naples in three small folio volumes, in 1491. It is printed in double columns, in rather an indistinct type, and contains nothing but the Canon: it is said to be very scarce. (De Rossi, Annal. Hebræo-Typogr. Sec. XV., p. 86.) The Latin editions are very numerous, no less than fourteen having been published (according to Choulant, Handbuch, &c.), before the end of the fifteenth century, thirteen in the sixteenth century, only two in the seventeenth, and none since that time. The earliest translation was made by Gerardus of Cremona, and was first published in folio, without place or date (but, as is supposed, by J. Mentelin, at Strassburg), in black letter, with two columns in a page. The following

66

of the work is the following colophon :--"Canonis liber quintus Auicene qui est et antidotarium ejus finit." Perhaps the best and most complete edition is that which was published at Venice by the Juntas, in 1595, fol. in two vols. It contains:-a letter of Nicholas Massa giving an account of Avicenna, translated by Fadella of Damascus from the Arabic of Abú 'Obeydah Al-jausjúní, whose name is corrupted into Sorsanus; "Tabulæ Isagogica in Universam Medicinam, ex arte Humain, id est Joannitii Arabis," ("A Tabular View of Medicine, compiled from the Isagoge of Honain Ibn Ishak, commonly called Joannitius,") by Fabius Paulinus; "Economiæ Librorum Canonis Avicennæ," ("A Tabular View of the Contents of the Canon,") by Fabius Paulinus; Avicenna's Canon, translated by Gerardus of Cremona, with the corrections of Andreas Alpagus, and notes by Joannes Costæus and Joannes Paulus Mongius; a short treatise "De Viribus Cordis," or " De Medicinis Cordialibus" ("On the Functions of the Heart," or "On Cordial Medicines"), translated by Arnaldus de Villanova ; another, " De Removendis Nocumentis quæ accidunt in Regimine Sanitatis" ("On removing evils connected with Regimen"); a third, "De Syrupo Acetoso" ("On Oxymel"), both translated by Andreas Alpagus; and the "Cantica," or poem on medicine, translated by Armegandus Blasius; two glossaries of Arabic words, one by Gerardus of Cremona, and the other by Andreas Alpagus; and, lastly, a tolerably complete Index of the matter contained both in the text and in the notes. An unfinished but very valuable edition was begun at Louvain, 1658, fol., by Vop. Fort. Plempius, who was pronounced by the late M. de Sacy to be the only one of the translators of the Arabic physicians who was really equal to the task. Canon consists of five books, of which the first treats chiefly of anatomy and physiology; the second of materia medica; the third of diseases, from the head to the feet; the fourth chiefly of fevers; and the fifth of the compounding of drugs, and of antidotes. The work is curiously divided and subdivided: each book containing a number of divisions called "Fen," each fen so many "treatises" or "doctrines," each doctrine being divided into sums, and, lastly, each sum into chapters. It is intended to be a complete system of medicine both theoretical and practical, and it contains also a compendium of anatomy and botany, accordingly it is strictly methodical in its arrangement, and this must have been one of its chief recommendations in the days of its popularity. At

The

present it is probably hardly ever read, and | is not nearly so interesting and valuable as several works of other Arabian physicians, much smaller in bulk, and infinitely less celebrated; and this neglect is in a great measure occasioned by what was no doubt in the middle ages one of the chief causes of its estimation-the fact of its being almost entirely an analysis of what was to be found in the writings of his predecessors. Freind says that, though he had looked into Avicenna's writings upon several occasions (for he confesses that he had not read them through), he "could meet with little or nothing there, but what is taken originally from Galen, or what at least occurs, with a very small variation, in Rhazes or Haly Abbas. He in general seems to be fond of multiplying the signs of distempers without any reason: . . . . he often indeed sets down some for essential symptoms which arise merely by accident, and have no immediate connection with the primary disease itself. And," he adds, " to confess the truth, if one would choose an Arabic system of physic, that of Haly seems to be less confused and more intelligible, as well as more consistent than this of Avicenna." The judgment of Haller is to much the same effect: he calls Avicenna a wordy and diffuse writer beyond all patience; a mere compiler of the Greeks, so that one might spend whole months without finding any original observation; and adds, that though he had read through the "Continens" of Rhazes (a work as large as the Canon), without being tired of it, he never could get to the end of Avicenna. His Anatomy and Physiology are taken from Galen, as was, indeed, the whole amount of knowledge possessed on these subjects not only by his predecessors, but also by his successors for some centuries after his death. Two of his observations have been extracted by Sprengel worthy of record:-1. he does not, like most of the ancients, place the seat of vision in the crystalline lens, but in the optic nerve, or rather the retina; and, 2, he follows Aristotle in recognizing three ventricles in the heart. In Materia Medica he makes great use of Dioscorides, but at the same time mentions many drugs peculiar to the East, several of which have never yet been clearly identified with any of the known productions of those countries: the list of drugs in the second book he has arranged alphabetically. The diseases treated of in the third book are mentioned in an order which was much in use among the ancients, and which, though perhaps not so philosophical as some of the modern classifications, is at least equally convenient in a work of reference: he begins with affections of the head, and proceeds gradually downwards to the feet. In treating of apoplexy he has improved upon Galen: he says it is produced either by obstruction or repletion, occasioned either by blood or a

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AVICENNA.

pituitous humour; thus agreeing with the modern division into sanguineous and serous apoplexy. He says that he had seen several instances of persons having revived who were apparently dead from an attack of apoplexy; and therefore recommends that in such cases the burial should be delayed for three days, the usual time of burial in those hours after death. His account of a disease hot countries being only about twenty-four which he describes under the name Tortura Faciei, is better than that of his predecessors, and corresponds more nearly to the tic douloureux, as he mentions particularly the pain in the bones of the face, a symptom which of the management and regimen of children, had been previously overlooked. In treating he insists on the propriety of attending to the regulation of the passions, as being conducive to the health as well as the morals. As soon bathed; then he is to be allowed to play for as the child is roused from sleep he is to be an hour afterwards he is to have some food, play. Afterwards he is again to be bathed; and then again he is to be allowed more is, if possible, to be prevented from drinking then he is to take some more food, and he tendency to make unconcocted chyle be diswater immediately after eating, as it has a tributed over the body. When he is six years old, he is to be consigned to the care of a teacher, but not to be forced to remain constantly in school: at this age he is to be less frequently bathed, and his exercise is to be increased before eating. Like most of the ancient authorities, he forbids the use of wine; and thus, he adds, is the regimen of age of fourteen. the child to be regulated until he reach the

(which are included in Fernel's Collection His chapters on fevers 1576, fol.) are chiefly taken from the Greeks, of ancient writers, "De Febribus," Venice, with the exception of the parts concerning small pox and measles. The following is his plan of treatment in putrid fevers. He begins permits, and then gently opens the bowels, but with venesection, if the patient's strength cautions the reader against violent purging. He then gives diuretics, and afterwards sudorifics, unless when the stomach is loaded with crudities; he much approves of cold drink. Though favourable to the seasonable practice of blood-letting, he forbids it except directs the quantity of blood to be proporat the commencement of the disease, and tioned to the strength of the patient; he also ing, purging, or giving gross food at that seaforbids interfering with the crisis by bleedson. Further, with regard to venesection, he at once, as this may occasion a dangerous does not approve of taking away much blood prostration of strength, but he prefers abstracting a moderate quantity, and repeating the operation, if necessary. which he most commends are tamarinds and myrobalans; but when these are not sufThe purgatives

matter in the Canon, yet, as Avicenna was a man of tolerably sound judgment, as well as great learning, and generally exhausts every subject which he undertakes, he may always be consulted with advantage by any one who wishes to know what were the most commonly received medical theories, and what the most approved mode of treatment, as exhibited in the works of the most celebrated physician of his day.

Perhaps the most popular of his medical works, next to the Canon, was the medical poem commonly called "Cantica," on which Averroes wrote a Commentary, which, together with the text, is in the tenth volume of his collected works. The Latin translation of this work has been several times republished, sometimes with the Canon, and sometimes with some of Avicenna's smaller treatises: the latest se

by Deusingius, 1649, Groningen, 12mo.

Though Avicenna's medical works were a long time in reaching the Arabians in Spain (for we are told that the first copy of the Canon was brought to that country during the life of Abú-l-'ala Zohr Ibn Zohr, who died nearly a hundred years after Avicenna), this must have arisen from the little communication that existed in those times between the different parts of the world, and not from his works being neglected or undervalued. It is certain that they soon began to be commented on, and besides Averroës, a great number of less eminent men employed themselves in abridging and illustrating them. The names of most of these are given by Haller, and the works of several of them are preserved in manuscript in various libraries in Europe, but none of them, it is believed, except the Commentary of Averroës mentioned above, have been published.

ficiently strong, he allows the use of scammony, aloes, and colocynth. He also directs camphor to be given as a refrigerant. He is very minute in his directions about the diet: for drink he gives barley-water, with a small proportion of wine or vinegar. His description of small-pox and measles is very similar to that of Rhazes: and he confidently pronounces them to be contagious diseases. He states correctly, that, when small-pox proves fatal, it is usually from the affection of the throat, or from the bowels becoming ulcerated: sometimes, he adds, the disease superinduces bloody urine. He agrees with Rhazes that measles is a bilious affection, and that it differs from small-pox only in this, that in the former the morbific matter is in smaller quantity, and does not pass the cuticle. His treatment also is little different. At any period during the first four days he approves of venesection, but forbids it after-parate edition mentioned by Haller is that wards; he recommends cooling and diluent draughts prepared from tamarinds and the like; he directs figs to be given, in order to facilitate the eruption of the pustules, and forbids cold drink after they begin to come out. When the pustules are large and fully formed, he approves of letting out their contents with a gold needle. His treatment of the throat, eyes, belly, and hands is nearly the same as that recommended by Rhazes: when ulcers are formed after the falling off of the eschars, he directs them to be dressed with the white ointment composed of ceruse and litharge. His surgical practice seems to have been rather feeble; and in this department he is inferior to Haly Abbas, and still more so to Albucasis. Sprengel thinks he is the first person who made use of the flexible catheter. He does not recommend an operation in cases of hernia, even when strangulated. In parturition, he states that the expulsion of the child is performed by the abdominal muscles; which was the opinion of Galen, and which is partially adopted in the present day. He approves greatly of the bath, both before labour has come on, and during the time of it. When delivery is difficult, owing to the size of the child, he directs the attendant to apply a fillet round the child's head, and endeavour to extract it; when this does not succeed, the forcipes are to be applied, and the child is to be extracted by them; and if this cannot be accomplished, the child is to be extracted by incision, as in the case of a dead fœtus. In this passage he seems to speak of a thing perfectly familiar and well known to his countrymen, and thus proves that the Arabians of his time were acquainted with the method of extracting the child alive by the forceps. A good idea of Avicenna's treatment may be gained from Mr. Adams's Commentary on his Translation of Paulus Ægineta, from which work some of the preceding remarks have been selected. It appears that, though there is little original

VOL. IV.

But though it is as a physician that Avicenna's name is most celebrated, he wrote numerous works on other subjects. One of his largest and most important philosophical works is that entitled Ash-shefa" (Healing, or Remedy), which contains much more than the title would lead us to expect. (Nicoll and Pusey, Catal. MSS. Arab. Biblioth. Bodl., p. 581.) It consists of four parts, of which the first treats of Logic, in the largest sense of the term; the second, of Physical Science; the third, of Mathematics; and the fourth, of Theology and Metaphysics. It is from the fifth part of this work that Abú-l-fedá quotes a passage containing an account, furnished him by an eye-witness, of a very large meteoric stone which fell at Jorján, from which, at the command of the Sultán Mahmud of Ghizní, a small portion was with great difficulty broken off in order to be made into a sword, but which was so hard that the attempt was abandoned. This large work, of which there is nearly a complete copy in the Bodleian

X

Library at Oxford, has never been published, either in the original Arabic or in a translation; but an abridgment of the first, second, and third parts of it was made by Avicenna himself, with the title "An-naját" (Preservative, or Deliverance), which is published in the Arabic edition of the Canon mentioned above. It is with reference to these two works that it was said in an Arabic poem, "His 'Shefa' (or Remedy) could not cure the misfortune which befel him, nor could his 'Naját' (or Preservative) | preserve him from death;" which appears to be the origin of the modern saying, that "His philosophy did not enable him to govern his passions, nor his knowledge of medicine preserve him from disease." Tennemann says that he showed originality in his Metaphysics. Avicenna asserts that it is no more possible to give a definition of Absolute Being, than it is to give one of the Necessary, the Possible, and the Real. From the abstract notion of Necessity, he concludes that what is necessary is without an efficient cause; and that there is only one Being existing of Necessity. With respect to his Logic, according to M. Saint-Hilaire (De la Logique d'Aristote) it is divided into three parts, of which the first treats of Reasoning in its elements and its form; the second, of Definition; and the third, of Fallacies. In it the doctrine of Aristotle is classed and analysed with a precision and clearness which was not to be found in Europe for four or five centuries after his time he follows his method entirely; and admits, with him, only three figures in a syllogism, and fourteen moods. He excludes the Topics from Logic, and refers his notice of them to another work, in which he intended also to treat of Rhetoric and Poetry. The work was translated into French by Vattier, and published at Paris, 1678.

8vo.

Frankfort, 1550, 4to.; in "Artis Auriferæ, quam Chemiam vocant," vol. i. Basel, 1593, 8vo.; in Mangetus, Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa," vol. i. Cologne, 1702, fol.; in "Theatrum Chemicum," vol. iv. Strassburg, 1613, 8vo.; in "Vera Alchemiæ Artisque Metallica Doctrina," &c., Basel, 1561, fol.; and in other similar collections. 4. "Avicene perhypatetici philosophi: ac medicorum facile primi opera in luce redacta: ac nuper quantum ars niti potuit per canonicos emendata. Logyca. Sufficientia. De celo et mundo. De anima. De animalibus. De intelligentiis. Alpharabius de intelligentiis. Philosophia prima," black letter, with two columns in a page, Venice, 1500, fol. Several of the works contained in this collection have also been published in other similar collections, or separately. 5. A Hymn, or Exhortation (Khottbat), is printed in Arabic in "Proverbia quædam Alis," Leiden, 1629, 8vo., and translated into French by Vattier in "L'E'légie du Tograi, &c.," Paris, 1660, 66 6. Compendium de Anima. De Mahad, i. e. de Dispositione, seu Loco ad quem revertitur Homo, vel Anima ejus post Mortem. Aphorismi de Anima. De Diffinitionibus, et Quæsitis. De Divisione Scientiarum," translated with notes by Andreas Alpagus, Venice, 1546, 4to. 7. Abugalii Filii Sinæ, sive, ut vulgo dicitur, Avicennæ, .....de Morbis Mentis Tractatus," translated by Vattier, Paris, 1659, 8vo., which is not, as has been sometimes supposed, a complete work by Avicenna, but consists of sixteen chapters extracted from the Canon. The above works probably contain all the writings of Avicenna that have ever been published, but a complete list of all the numerous editions that have appeared has not been attempted. (Further information respecting his life and writings may be found in Freind's Hist. of Physic; Brucker, Hist. Crit. PhiThe following editions of shorter and sepa-losoph.; Haller, Biblioth. Botan., Chirurg., rate works are worth mention:-1. Пepl Ούρων Πραγματεία ̓Αρίστη τοῦ Σοφωτάτου παρὰ μὲν Ἰνδοῖς ̓́Αλλη Εμπνι τοῦ Σινᾶ, ἤτοι *Aλλŋ vioû Toû Zivâ,) πapà dè 'Iraλoîs 'ABITStavou ("An excellent work on Urines, by the Shaikh 'Ali Ibn Síná, or 'Ali, the son of Síná, commonly called in Europe Avicenna"). This is a very short treatise, published for the first time in the second volume of Ideler's Physici et Medici Græci Minores," Berlin, 1842, 8vo.; which, as no work with this title appears in the lists of Avicenna's writings, is probably translated or abridged from the Canon or the Cantica, though the writer has not been able to find the exact passages that compose it. 2. A Poem of Logic, in Arabic, is inserted by Aug. Schmölders in his "Documenta Philosophiæ Arabum," Bonn, 1836, Avidius Cassius, according to some au8vo., with a Latin Translation and Com-thorities, belonged to the ancient Cassii, “who mentary. 3. Some works connected with conspired in the senate-house against Julius Alchemy are contained in "De Alchimia (Cæsar)." But Avidius Cassius himself Opuscula complura veterum Philosophorum," claimed no relationship to the Cassius who

and Medic. Pract.; Wüstenfeld, Geschichte
der Arabischen Aerzte, with the authorities
there quoted. See also Ibn Khallikán's Bio-
graph. Dict. by De Slane, Paris, 1842; The
Dabistán, by Shea and Troyer, Paris, 1843;
Mohammed Bin Yoosoof, Buhr-ool Juwahir,
Calcutta, 1830, fol.; Choulant, Handbuch der
Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin ;
Adams, Commentary to his Translation of
Paulus Ægineta.)
W. A. G.

AVIDIUS CÁ'SSIUS. The chief events of the life of Avidius Cassius, and his attempt to make himself emperor, are mentioned in the article MARCUS AURELIUS. They are briefly recapitulated here, together with a few facts which belong more immediately to his personal history.