On the Antiquity of the Chemical Art by James Mactear
page 10 of 53 (18%)
page 10 of 53 (18%)
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and Kum to Teheran, on his way home to Ghazni, gives an indication
of the long journeys taken under the most frightful difficulties. This long journey had occupied six months only, and we read that in former times twelve years were sometimes taken in trading journeys.] In Vol. VIII. of the Journal of Education we find a notice that âProfessor Dietz, of the University of Königsberg, who had spent five years of his life in visiting the principal libraries of Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, France, and England, in search of manuscripts of Greek, Roman, and Oriental writers on medicine, is now engaged in publishing his âAnalecta Medica.â âThe work contains several interesting papers on the subject of physical science among the Indians and Arabians, and communicates several introductory notices and illustrations from native Eastern writers. Dietz proves that the late Greek physicians were acquainted with the medical works of the Hindus, and availed themselves of their medicaments; but he more particularly shows that the Arabians were familiar with them, and extolled the healing art, as practised by the Indians, quite as much as that in use among the Greeks. âIt appears from Ibn Osaibeâs testimony (from whose biographical work Dietz has given a long abstract on the lives of Indian physicians), that a variety of treatises on medical science were translated from the Sanscrit into Persian and Arabic, particularly the more important compilations of Charaka and Susruta, which are still held in estimation in India; and that Manka and Saleh--the former of whom translated a special treatise on poisons into Persian--even held appointments as body-physicians at the Court of Harun-al-Raschid.â |
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