century, and whose learning is reputed to have equalled that of
the greatest physicians of the day. She is accredited with a work
on Diseases of Women, still extant, and many of her writings on
general medical subjects were quoted through two succeeding
centuries. If we may judge from these writings, she seemed to
have had many excellent ideas as to the proper methods of
treating diseases, but it is difficult to determine just which of
the writings credited to her are in reality hers. Indeed, the
uncertainty is even greater than this implies, for, according to
some writers, "Trotula" is merely the title of a book. Such an
authority as Malgaigne, however, believed that such a woman
existed, and that the works accredited to her are authentic. The
truth of the matter may perhaps never be fully established, but
this at least is certain--the tradition in regard to Trotula
could never have arisen had not women held a far different
position among the Arabians of this period from that accorded
them in contemporary Christendom.



III. MEDIAEVAL SCIENCE IN THE WEST

We have previously referred to the influence of the Byzantine
civilization in transmitting the learning of antiquity across the
abysm of the dark age. It must be admitted, however, that the
importance of that civilization did not extend much beyond the
task of the common carrier. There were no great creative
scientists in the later Roman empire of the East any more than in
the corresponding empire of the West. There was, however, one
field in which the Byzantine made respectable progress and