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 part in the same literary and scientific studies. All the barriers which commonly separate men were thrown down, and all worked with equal zeal in behalf of our common civilization.
With the death of Averroes (1198 A. D.), however, Arab philosophy lost its last representative, and the Koran resumed its full authority over freedom of thought. In the succeeding period of decadence (thirteenth century of the Christian era) there were no physicians of first importance, at least in Spain and Persia; and even in Egypt and Syria, over which reigned at this time the enlightened family of Saladin, the leading physicians were not of the same calibre as the men whose names I have just mentioned. Bagdad and Cordova had by this time become cities of less importance than Damascus, and botany and ophthalmology were esteemed of greater value in the scheme of medical education than at any previous time. It will not appear strange, however, that medicine should have stood still during this later part of the Middle Ages if we bear in mind the fact that warfare was then such a frequently occurring event that nobody had either time or inclination for scientific studies. The invasions of the Mongolians and the Crusaders were most disturbing factors.
During the twelfth century of the present era there were—so we are assured by Le Clerc—women physicians among the Arabs in Spain. It is said, for example, that Abou Bekr, a distinguished medical practitioner of that period, had a sister who was well trained in medicine, and that it was she who acted as midwife at all the confinements of the wives of the Caliph Almansur. After her death her niece officiated in the same capacity in her place. There can scarcely be any reasonable doubt that, almost from time immemorial, women as well as men have taken active part in the practice of medicine.
According to Puschmann, Spain possessed, during the twelfth century of the Christian era, seventy public libraries and seventeen institutions for instruction in the higher branches of learning. Among the residents of the city of Cordova there were, during the same period, no fewer than one hundred and fifty authors; and the smaller cities of Almeria, Murcia and Malaga could each claim proportionally an equally large number, viz., fifty-two, sixty-one and fifty-three.
The Effects of the Arab Renaissance as a Whole upon the Evolution of Medicine.—Although the series of events which I have endeavored to sketch here in brief outlines reveals an extraordinary degree of zeal and persistence on the part of the Arab rulers and their subjects to endow the nation with the knowledge and skill of their models, the Greeks, the final results gained, at least so far as they relate to the evolution of medicine as a whole, were not very great. The movement lasted for five or six centuries, but nevertheless only a few relatively unimportant facts were added by the Arabs to the stock of knowledge which was possessed at the time of Galen’s death. Alhazen’s brilliant researches in the eleventh century of our era in optics (more particularly with reference to refraction) paved the way for a more perfect knowledge, in modern times, of the physiology of vision; Geber, who lived during the eighth century of the Christian era, and who is spoken of by Le Clerc as “occupying the same place in the history of chemistry that Hippocrates does in the history of medicine,” laid the foundations of that important branch of science; Abulcasis discovered the Medina worm (dracunculus Medinensis) and wrote an excellent description of the pathological effects which it produces when it lodges under the skin of a man’s leg; and, finally, our pharmacopoeia was enriched, during these centuries, by the addition to it of a number of new drugs and pharmaceutical preparations. These are among the more important contributions which the Arabs made to the general stock of medical knowledge. On the other hand, they contributed, in an indirect manner, to the advance of the science of medicine. From the thirteenth century onward, for a long period, the Latin language was destined to serve as the vehicle by means of which all scientific knowledge was to be spread abroad in the countries which are now known as Italy, Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Holland, and therefore an immense amount of translating had to be done before the works of Hippocrates, Galen and other Greek medical authors could be brought within reach of the physicians of these different countries. At that late date it was by no means always feasible to get possession of an original copy of one of these classical treatises, and consequently in such cases it became necessary to employ an Arabic version in the place of the Greek original. It was in this indirect manner, therefore, that the Mohammedan Renaissance contributed most effectively in advancing the development of medical science in general.
One cannot dismiss the subject of Arabic medicine without calling attention once more to the spectacle which this remarkable Renaissance offers—that of an entire nation deliberately working to educate itself up to the level of such intellectual and artistic giants as the ancient Greeks; a work which continued with unabated zeal throughout several centuries in spite of obstacles and discouragements, and which never ceased for a moment. It is a spectacle without parallel in the world’s history.
CHAPTER XX
HOSPITALS AND MONASTERIES IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Long before the Christian era it was the practice among the Greeks to make suitable provision for those who, by reason of poverty or illness, were unable to provide for their own wants or to secure the services of a physician. Their slaves, for example, were sent, when overtaken with illness, or when they had become too feeble to work, to what was termed Xenodochia—institutions where they received kindly care and such medical treatment as was necessary. (Mommsen.) In strong contrast with this humane practice stands the action of those wealthy Roman property owners who, adopting the course recommended by Cato, the famous censor (96–46 B. C.), “sold their slaves when they became old and feeble or ill, as they would old iron, or oxen that can no longer be utilized for work.” This cruel practice not only continued throughout a period of nearly three centuries, but apparently became more and more common, for we are told that the Emperor Claudius (268–270 A. D.) was obliged, in order to mitigate the evil, to issue a decree that, when a slave was driven out of the house by his owner, he should be declared free.