This surgical treatise has been investigated, translated, and commented upon by eminent historians of medicine and surgery to whose works I shall refer in this article. However, the pharmaceutic and therapeutic details of the treatise have been somewhat overlooked.
As to the various illustrations of the surgical instruments (over 200 figures in all), an almost complete representation of samples has been introduced by Channing,[7] Leclerc,[8] Gurlt,[9] Sudhoff,[10] and others. Nevertheless, a good number of the reproduced drawings are greatly modified, most likely having been influenced by earlier illustrations in several Latin and vernacular versions of the treatise.[11] This becomes clearer on comparison with seven Arabic manuscripts that have not been fully examined by Western scholars before and that—in several instances—show more authentic drawings of al-Zahrāwī’s surgical instruments than any heretofore published.[12]
Figure 5.--Ink markings for identifying place of cauterization. Top, from original Arabic manuscript (Vel. 2491), courtesy Süleymaniye Umumi Kütüphanesi. Bottom, from Argellata 1531, courtesy National Library of Medicine.
Figure 6.—Cautery in hernia. Top, from original Arabic manuscript (Vel. 2491), courtesy Süleymaniye Umumi Kütüphanesi Müdürlüğü. Bottom, from Leclerc, Albulcasis.
This article therefore, is an attempt to present a sample of these illustrations with brief comments regarding certain figures and passages of interest to pharmacy and medical therapy.
With much gratitude I express my indebtedness to Prof. G. Folch Jou of Madrid, to Dr. A. Süheyl Ünver and Mr. H. Dener of Istanbul, and to the librarians of the depository institutions for their cooperation in the reproduction of the manuscripts on microfilm.