names Morocco and Cordovan are still applied, in this latter
art, to leather prepared after the Arabian method. They manufactured
and dyed silk and cotton, made paper, were acquainted with the use of
gunpowder, and have claims to the honour of inventing the mariner's
compass. But perhaps there is no art in which their knowledge is so
much a subject of curious inquiry as medicine. Their country was
salubrious, their habits simple, and their indulgences few; so that
large opportunities of practically studying the art, at least among the
Arabs of earlier date, would not occur. Anatomy, except that of the
brute creation, was shut up from their study by the prejudices of their
creed; yet they excelled in medical skill. Hareth ibn Kaldar, an
eminent practitioner settled at Mecca, was honoured with the
conversation and applause of Mohammed. Honain was an eminent Arab
physician in the middle of the sixth century; Messue, the celebrated
preceptor of Almamoun, belonged to this profession; and a host of
others adorn the early annals of the Saracens. Al Rhagi, or Ullages,
as commonly called, and Abdallah ibn Sina, or Avicenna, are names to
which, for centuries, deference was paid by professors of the healing
art throughout Europe, though it would not be difficult to show that
their doctrines and practice must have been beyond measure absurd.
They {264} administered gold, and silver, and precious stones to purify
the blood.

Of chymistry, so far as it relates to medicine, the Arabs may be
considered as the inventors; and botany, in the same connexion, they
cultivated with great success. Geber, in the eighth century, is known
as their principal chymical writer; he is said to have composed five
hundred volumes, almost every one of which is lost. The early
nomenclature of the science indicates how much it owes to this people.
Alcohol, alembic, alkali, aludel, and other similar terms, are
evidently of Arabic origin; nor should it be forgotten that the
characters used for drugs, essences, extracts, and medicines, the
import of which is now almost entirely unknown (and which are
consequently invested, in vulgar estimation, with occult powers), are
all to be traced to the same source.

It may be impossible now to estimate accurately the extent of our
obligations to Arabian literature. An empire so widely spread, by the
encouragement it gave to letters, must have had a beneficial influence
on almost every country. Europeans, wh