acens, [65] and the school of Salerno, their legitimate
offspring, revived in Italy and Europe the precepts of the healing art.
[66] The success of each professor must have been influenced by personal
and accidental causes; but we may form a less fanciful estimate of their
general knowledge of anatomy, [67] botany, [68] and chemistry, [69] the
threefold basis of their theory and practice. A superstitious reverence
for the dead confined both the Greeks and the Arabians to the dissection
of apes and quadrupeds; the more solid and visible parts were known
in the time of Galen, and the finer scrutiny of the human frame was
reserved for the microscope and the injections of modern artists. Botany
is an active science, and the discoveries of the torrid zone might
enrich the herbal of Dioscorides with two thousand plants. Some
traditionary knowledge might be secreted in the temples and monasteries
of Egypt; much useful experience had been acquired in the practice of
arts and manufactures; but the science of chemistry owes its origin and
improvement to the industry of the Saracens. They first invented
and named the alembic for the purposes of distillation, analyzed the
substances of the three kingdoms of nature, tried the distinction and
affinities of alcalis and acids, and converted the poisonous minerals
into soft and salutary medicines. But the most eager search of Arabian
chemistry was the transmutation of metals, and the elixir of immortal
health: the reason and the fortunes of thousands were evaporated in
the crucibles of alchemy, and the consummation of the great work was
promoted by the worthy aid of mystery, fable, and superstition.

[Footnote 55: The Arabic catalogue of the Escurial will give a just idea
of the proportion of the classes. In the library of Cairo, the Mss of
astronomy and medicine amounted to 6500, with two fair globes, the one
of brass, the other of silver, (Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. i. p. 417.)]

[Footnote 56: As, for instance, the fifth, sixth, and seventh books (the
eighth is still wanting) of the Conic Sections of Apollonius Pergaeus,
which were printed from the Florence Ms. 1661, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec.
tom. ii. p. 559.) Yet the fifth book had been previously restored by the
mathematical divination of Viviani, (see his Eloge in Fontenelle, tom.
v. p. 59, &c.)]

[Footnote 57: The merit of these Arabic versions is freely discussed
by Renaudot, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. i. p. 812-816,) and pious