Jews._

_1st. The Nestorians, their Persecutions, and the Diffusion of
their Sectarian Ideas.--They inherit the old Greek Medicine._

_Sub-digression on Greek Medicine.--The
Asclepions.--Philosophical Importance of Hippocrates, who
separates Medicine from Religion.--The School of Cnidos.--Its
Suppression by Constantine._

_Sub-digression on Egyptian Medicine.--It is founded on
Anatomy and Physiology.--Dissections and Vivisections.--The
Great Alexandrian Physicians._

_2nd. The Jewish Physicians.--Their Emancipation from
Superstition.--They found Colleges and promote Science and
Letters._

_The contemporary Tendency to Magic, Necromancy, the Black
Art.--The Philosopher's Stone, Elixir of Life, etc._

_The Arabs originate scientific Chemistry.--Discover the
strong Acids, Phosphorus, etc.--Their geological Ideas.--Apply
Chemistry to the Practice of Medicine.--Approach of the
Conflict between the Saracenic material and the European
supernatural System._

[Sidenote: Importance of the influence of the Arabians.]

The military operations of the Arabians, described in Chapter XI.,
overthrew the Byzantine political system, prematurely closing the Age of
Faith in the East; their intellectual procedure gave rise to an equally
important result, being destined, in the end, to close the Age of Faith
in the West. The Saracens not only destroyed the Italian offshoot, they
also impressed characteristic lineaments on the Age of Reason in Europe.

Events so important make it necessary for me to turn aside from the
special description of European intellectual advancement, and offer a
digression on the passage of the Arabians to their Age of Reason. It is
impossible for us to understand their action in the great drama about to
be performed unless we understand the character they had assumed.

[Sidenote: Their intellectual progress.]

In a few centuries the fanatics of Mohammed had altogether changed their
appearance. Great philosophers, physicians, mathematicians, astronomers,
alchemists, grammarians, had arisen among them. Letters and science, in
all their various departments, were cultivated.

[Sidenote: Their teachers were the Nestorians and Jews.]

A nation stirred to its profoundest depths by warlike emigration, and
therefore ready to make, as soon as it reaches a period of repose, a
rapid intellectual advance, may owe the