ntury).

Abulcasis insisted that for successful surgery a detailed knowledge of
anatomy was, above all, necessary. He said that the reason why surgery
had declined in his day was that physicians did not know their anatomy.
The art of medicine, he added further, required much time.
Unfortunately, to quote Hippocrates, there are many who are physicians
in name only, and not in fact, especially in what regards surgery. He
gives some examples of surgical mistakes made by his professional
brethren that were particularly called to his attention. They are the
perennially familiar instances of ignorance causing death because
surgeons were tempted to operate too extensively.

His description of the procedure necessary to stop an artery from
bleeding is an interesting example of his method of teaching the
practical technique of surgery. Apply the finger promptly upon the
opening of the vessel and press until the blood is arrested. Having
heated a cautery of the appropriate size, take the finger away rapidly
and touch the cautery at once to the end of the artery until the blood
stops. If the spurting blood should cool the cautery, take another.
There should be several ready for the purpose. Take care, he says, not
to cauterize the nerves in the neighborhood, for this will add a new
ailment to the patient's affection. There are only four ways of
arresting arterial hemorrhage. First, by cautery; second, by division
of the artery, when that is not complete--for then the extremities
contract and the blood clots--or by a ligature, or by the application of
substances which arrest blood flow, aided by a compressive bandage.
Other means are inefficient, and seldom and, at most, accidentally
successful. His instruction for first aid to the injured in case of
hemorrhage in the absence of the physician, is to apply pressure
directly upon the wound itself.

The development of the surgical specialties among the Arabs is
particularly interesting. Abulcasis has much to say about nasal polyps.
He divided them into three classes: (1) cancerous, (2) those with a
number of feet, and (3) those that are soft and not living,--these
latter, he says, are neither malignant nor difficult to treat. He
recommends the use of a hook for their removal, or a snare for those
that cannot be removed with that instrument. His instructions for the
removal of objects from the external ear are interestingly practical. He
advises the use of bird lime on the end of a