Figure 2.—The myrtle-leaf shape recommended for paper on which medicine is to be placed for cauterizing eyelid. Top, from original Arabic manuscript (Tüb. MS. 91), courtesy Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen. Bottom, from Channing, Albucasis
The fame attached to this surgical treatise, the 30th and last in al-Zahrāwī’s encyclopedic work al-Taṣrīf Liman ʻAjiza ʻan al-Taʼ līf, is founded on certain merits. The text is characterized by lucidity, careful description, and a touch of original observation of the surgical operations to which the treatise as a whole is devoted.[4] Al-Zahrāwī furnishes his own drawings of the surgical and dental instruments he used, devised, or recommended for a more efficient performance. The illustrations were intended to provide instructional material for apprentices—whom al-Zahrāwī calls his children—as well as for the benefit of those who would read the work later on.[5] The treatise is probably the oldest one known today that contains such instructive surgical illustrations and text.[6]
Figure 3.—Small funnel for pouring heated lead into fistula of the eye for cauterization. Top, from original Arabic manuscript (Vel. 2491), courtesy Süleymaniye Umumi Kütüphanesi Müdürlüğü. Bottom, from Sudhoff, Chirurgie, courtesy National Library of Medicine.
Figure 4.--Circular cauterization in stomach ailments. Top, from original Arabic manuscript (Tüb. MS. 91), courtesy Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen. Bottom, from the 1531 Latin edition of Pietro d’Argellata, Chirurgia Argellata cum Albucasis, hereinafter cited as Argellata 1531, courtesy National Library of Medicine.