To Galen was ascribed not only the work on the occult medicinal virtues of animals already noted, but also a like treatise on plants.[2429] It was translated from the Arabic into Latin by Grumerus Index de Placentia (Grumerus, a judge of Piacenza) and Master Abraham the physician, and is in the form of a Gloss or Commentary by Honein ben Ishak or Johannitius, whom we again encounter as the translator or adapter of Galen from the Greek. Honein states that Galen’s wish in this work was to set down some medicines of marvelous properties which he had collected in the course of his lifetime, and which Honein too has often put to the test, “and experience never fails.” These medicines are not commonly known, because Galen wished them divulged only to men of wisdom and discretion. Others, however, before Honein have translated the treatise from Greek into Arabic, and a preceding glossator has dealt with it in a way of which Honein does not approve and which he intends to rectify, including only what is true and what he has himself tested. Forty-six specimens are then treated, of which a few are stones or parts of animals rather than plants.[2430] Honein’s gloss is mainly devoted to explaining what plant or tree Galen had in mind in each case, or, where Galen does not give an exact name, to stating its Arabic equivalent. In a few cases the opinion of Abraham the Jew is briefly added.
Secrets or Aphorisms of Rasis.
To Rasis is attributed not only a work on animals much like that ascribed to Galen; there also is a Book of Secrets in Medicine printed under his name.[2431] But to avoid confusion with the two books of secrets ascribed to Galen, we shall henceforth speak of Rasis’ treatise by its alternative title of Aphorisms. The following is a literal translation of its preface, interesting for its attitude to science and books, and both original and at the same time occasionally a bit incoherent and abrupt or strange and mystical in tone. Perhaps these characteristics are to be partly accounted for by awkwardness of the Latin translator in grappling with the Arabic, or, if we assume that the work is by Rasis, to the coming on of old age, or perhaps they are merely the mystic and boastful style characteristic of pseudo-literature.
A literal translation of its preface.
“I have collected and classified diseases, and I have shown cures and the natures of cures from the canons of the ancients and from treatises and chapters to the best of my ability; and I beseech God to supply me with the additional strength and power to complete this book and make it a useful one. Already we have completed a compilation of things tested by experience in the arts, namely, philosophy and physics, two subjects in which words and facts are infinite. And men can never make an end of those subjects (Nec etiam homines in eis complementum habere possunt.) But our intention in this book is to show things useful to humanity. And in this we differ from the ancients who hid things that were essential to know and deprived of light the path of science and virtue. And witness to this point is our big book of divine science, which is the Book of Spirituals, and our book Of the Spirit. And our discussion in the Book of Diets, namely, how indulgence may be removed from these for all time. And I have condensed the language so that one can get to the point more easily. And I expect retribution from God who will furnish me aid. For without Him nothing has effect.”
“Says Abu Bekr: the wise man is not occult and in every age, despite frauds and concealments of the paths of science and of the ancient arts, compilers have collected their doctrines and discovered their ways whether hidden or manifest. And this book of ours is first and is secret and is handy. And show it not to undeserving persons. In it is contained reason, it adds something to the ancients, and as long as there shall be days and years I shall live and gain through this book of mine, and I have no doubt that this book of mine is something secret. For it has been my plan to tell some secrets in it, both in prognostics of the future and in confidential information and some of my own cases. Said confidences I acquired and collected from the books of sages who had not perfectly revealed them. And from what I have experienced myself and acquired by my reason. And witness thereof is my rational language, and I have spoken in collections of medicines and foods, and I want to strike a golden mean between these and free my words entirely from the accidental. And know that this is the pith of all utility and the pearl of clarity which brings light out of darkness. Which book the ancients would have praised had they lived till now, and I have divided it into six chapters without superfluity; with comprehensiveness and brevity I now begin to speak with my excessive virtue and occult science.”
Contents of its six chapters.
The first chapter on prognostics deals with the weather as a sign or cause of disease and also with bodily symptoms. The next two chapters on experiments, confidences, and Rasis’ own cases, contain some close resemblances to two treatises already described in this chapter, listing marvelous oils, plasters, confections, and suffumigations like the latter part of the Experimental Medicines of Galen or Rasis, making the same citations of Haly, and giving Rasis’s prescription for his own insomnia; and also the alcohol (here spelt alcofol) for white growths of the eyes of the Secrets of Galen, which is again called “the last word” (Scias quod hoc est ultimum). The fourth chapter speaks of the great force of occult virtues in natural substances, the difficulty of measuring and comprehending such occult virtue, and the consequent need of moderation and caution in the use of medicines and the danger of rash experiment. The author’s advice that “of medicines everyone should take less” was certainly sound amid the extravagances of ancient and medieval pharmacy. He gives an interesting list of drugs which may safely be employed.[2432] The fifth chapter, after a brief introduction by Rasis, consists of the Secrets or Prognosticon of Hippocrates, which we have already met following or in the midst of the Experimental Medicines of Galen. The sixth chapter is a collection of miscellaneous aphorisms such as that in the practice of medicine “Laymen and those would judge by their intuition and young men who have not had practical experience are no better than murderers,”[2433] and that “women who are accustomed to sleep a great deal on the right side will hardly bear a female child.” In both the sixth and second chapters the need of a doctor’s knowing astronomy and the importance of observing the planets and the moon are touched on. Appeals for divine aid and the rendition of thanks to God occur occasionally throughout the treatise.
Experimentator.
Withington states in his Medical History that Rasis was sometimes called Experimentator. Now among the many medieval “experimental books” was one which is cited simply as Experimentator by two thirteenth century writers, Petrus Hispanus, afterwards Pope John XXI, in his Thesaurus Pauperum,[2434] a medical compendium of great popularity, and Thomas of Cantimpré in his encyclopedia entitled De natura rerum.[2435] In his preface Thomas describes Experimentator as “a book without name of the author, which I have heard was compiled in modern times.”[2436] No manuscript of a work so entitled seems to be extant. The citations of Thomas and Peter from the work deal largely with animals, their habits and semi-human characteristics, and the virtues medicinal and otherwise of various parts of their carcasses. Experimentator’s prescriptions included eating the heart of a wolf and the gall of a bear, taking a powder compounded of the burnt hoof of an ass, the ashes of a weasel, and swallows burnt alive, touching an aching tooth with that of a dead man, and even more disgusting remedies. Some of these suggest the Sixty Animals of Rasis, but it will be remembered that that treatise did not touch upon the habits of the animals but only their medicinal uses. Moreover, Peter of Spain cites herbs and other non-animal remedies from Experimentator for paralysis of the tongue, toothache, and constipation, while Thomas of Cantimpré repeats “the properties of air according to Experimentator.” Thomas does well to speak of the book as compiled in modern times, for many of its statements have a familiar sound and suggest use of such authors as Pliny and Marcellus Empiricus. For instance, Thomas cites Experimentator for the account found in Pliny’s Natural History—and described by Pliny himself as an “experiment”—of marking a dolphin’s tail in order to learn its age, if it should chance to be caught again. On the whole, if neither Peter nor Thomas knew who wrote the Experimentator, it is probably idle for us to make surmises, unless possibly it may have been by Thomas himself, whose authorship even of the De natura rerum is seldom recognized either in the manuscript catalogues or in the manuscripts themselves.