Figure 7.—Fine tweezer for removing foreign bodies from the ear. Top, from original Arabic manuscript (Ali 2854), courtesy Süleymaniye Umumi Kütüphanesi Müdürlüğü. Bottom, from Leclerc, Abulcasis.
Figure 8.--Syringe with metal plunger-pump. Top, from original Arabic manuscript (Ali 2854), courtesy Süleymaniye Umumi Kütüphanesi Müdürlüğü. Bottom, from Channing, Albucasis.
Al-Zahrāwī frequently introduces his treatises with brief instructive and sometimes informative preludes. However, in launching the last treatise of al-Taṣrīf he expounded in a most interesting and illuminating manner the status of surgery during his time. He also explains the reasons that forced him to write on this topic and why he wished to include, as he did, precautions, advice, instructional notes, and beautifully illustrated surgical drawings. For example, the prelude to the treatise mentions four incidents that he witnessed, all ending with tragic results because of the ignorance of physicians who attempted to operate on patients without the proper training in anatomy and surgical manipulation. "For if one does not have the knowledge of anatomy," al-Zahrāwī protests, then " ... he is apt to fall in errors that lead to death as I have seen it happen to many."[13]
Al-Zahrāwī divides his surgical treatise into three sections (abwāb). In the first section (56 chapters)[14] he elaborates upon the uses and disadvantages of cautery in general. And on the ground that "fire touches only the ailing part ... without causing much damage to surrounding area," as caustic medicine does, he prefers cautery by fire (al-kay bi al-nār) to cautery by medicine (bi al-dawā).[15] This, he adds, "became clear to us through lifelong experience, diligent practice, and thorough investigations of facts."[16]
