EXPERIMENTS AND SECRETS OF GALEN, RASIS, AND OTHERS:
I. MEDICAL AND BIOLOGICAL
Books of “Experiments” or “Secrets”—Rasis on pains in the joints—Medical Experiments of Galen or Rasis—Value of such medical experiments—Experimenters of many lands and cities—Who was the Latin translator?—The Secrets of Galen—Addressed to “friend Monteus”—Was he William of Saliceto’s “friend Montheus”?—Patients and prescriptions—Liber medicinalis de secretis Galieni—Rasis On sixty animals—Eberus On the virtues of animals—Galen and Honein On plants—Secrets or Aphorisms of Rasis—A literal translation of its preface—Contents of its six chapters—Experimentator—Experiments of Nicholas of Poland and Montpellier—His Antipocras—Other works of Nicholas—Appendix I. The manuscripts of the Medical Experiments—Appendix II. The manuscripts of The Secrets of Galen.
Books of “experiments” or “secrets.”
In this chapter we continue our examination of the pseudo-literature current in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by considering and distinguishing one from another a number of books of “experiments” or “secrets” which are mainly medicinal in character, although some are concerned especially with the properties of animals, and most of which are attributed either to Rasis or Galen or to both of them. Some were included in the early printed editions of their works, others are found frequently in medieval Latin manuscripts. Some of them perhaps really are by Rasis or have some connection with his works. In the next chapter we shall go on to books of experiments primarily of a chemical and magical character but some of which also are ascribed to Rasis or Galen.
Rasis on pains in the joints.
It is essential to distinguish these various treatises from one another rather carefully, because a number of different writings are ascribed to Galen or Rasis under the common title of “Book of Experiments” or words to that effect.[2386] Thus Gilbert of England, a medical writer of the first half of the thirteenth century, cites “the expert experiments from Galen’s book of experiments” for the statement that ammonia is a remedy for pains in the joints,[2387] while a fifteenth century manuscript at Berlin, containing various extracts from medical works, cites “a certain experimenter of whom Rasis writes in the book of experiments, ‘He cured many afflictions by simple medicines.’”[2388] We may first note that the title Liber experimentorum or Experimenta Rasi is sometimes applied to what is probably a genuine work of Rasis,[2389] namely, the treatise On diseases of the Joints (De egritudinibus juncturarum), which appears in both early printed editions of Rasis’ works.[2390] I think that this treatise sometimes is found alone in the manuscripts,[2391] but more often it is followed by, or run together with, as if they formed a single work, another treatise or portion of a treatise which more properly deserves the title, Book of Experiments.
Medical Experiments of Galen or Rasis.
This is the book of medicines tested by experiment or of medical experimentation[2392] or of experiments of the altar. It constantly talks about experimenters and its contents are arranged as experiments. The work opens with the statement that the fire which descended upon the altar burnt the books of the king or kings, and with these numerous medical works, including some which the author himself had begun to compose. This faintly suggests the fire of 192 A. D. mentioned by Galen which destroyed the shrine of Peace and the libraries on the Palatine hill and the first two books, which had already been published, of his own work on compound medicines. It might therefore seem that the present treatise is that of a forger trying to pass himself off as Galen, and in the printed text of 1481 and many manuscripts this opening statement is introduced by the words, “Said Galen.” In other manuscripts there is no such mention of Galen and the treatise is ascribed to Rasis, like the work on diseases of the joints which so often precedes it. Between these two works there often intervenes a brief treatise or chapter on the medical treatment of children (Practica puerorum or parvorum). Where the Medical Experimentation comes to an end is not easy to determine. It might seem to be brought to a close by a sentence reading, “Said Galen”—or, “Says Rasis”—“Now we have said our say in this book which we call the book of the experimental testing of medicines, which we have proved and have received from wiser men.” But after some further lines of text, which scarcely seem the beginning of a new treatise, we meet in some editions or manuscripts with an “Explicit” or “Expliciunt experimenta Galenis,” while in others the text proceeds without a break, although this sentence occurs, “Now moreover, of those medicines we have mentioned in this treatise many tested by experience, but if we acquire yet others, we will write them at the end of this treatise.” This would seem to indicate that the work is not yet finished. The text then often continues, as we have said, discussing such matters as “How to take medicine without nausea; marvelous pills according to Rasis,” “Medicines which beautify the face,” “The composition of many oils,” soporifics invented by Rasis to cure his own insomnia brought on by too intense application to the medical art, and other remedies for varied complaints. In the 1497 edition of Rasis’ works, which does not contain the Medical Experimentation proper, most of this supplementary material was combined in four chapters under the separate title, The Antidotarium of Rasis,[2393] although that title apparently belongs to another work, while a passage on the stone was also printed as a distinct Tractatus Rasis de preservatione ab egritudine lapidis. But in the 1481 edition and such manuscripts as I have examined these chapters or paragraphs are not separated from the Medical Experimentation, and the whole finally ends, “Expliciunt experimenta rasis.” Possibly, therefore, everything that we have noted so far, beginning with the Diseases of the Joints, should be regarded as part of a composite treatise by Rasis, whose name occurs most often and prominently. If so, it is a very omnibus work and loosely hung together, nor when its parts are found together are they always in the same sequence.
Value of such medical experiments.