Medicine as a science
Examine how the Canon defines medicine, orders knowledge of the body from principles to particular cases, and sets rules for testing remedies.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
Begun at Jurjan around 1012 and continued at Rayy and Hamadan, the Canon was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona at Toledo in the twelfth century. Printed in Latin from 1473 and in Arabic at Rome in 1593, it remained a textbook in European universities into the seventeenth century. This medical encyclopedia orders the learning of Hippocrates, Galen and the physicians of the Islamic world in five books: the general principles of physiology, hygiene and therapy; simple drugs; the diseases of each organ from head to foot; conditions that affect the whole body, such as fevers; and compound remedies.
Following the arguments
Temperament : Health is the proper balance of each body’s temperament and humours, which the physician reads through signs such as the pulse, the urine and the complexion. Testing remedies : The second book sets conditions for testing a drug: a pure substance, a simple disease, repeated trials and effects observed in human beings rather than inferred from animals. Theory and practice : Medicine takes its principles from natural philosophy without proving them, and its practical part is still a kind of knowledge, guiding how to preserve and restore health.
Continuing the reading
Read the definition of medicine and the chapters on temperaments in the first book, then the rules for testing drugs in the second, and treat the whole as a historical source, not as medical advice. Begun at Jurjan around 1012 and continued at Rayy and Hamadan, the Canon was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona at Toledo in the twelfth century. Printed in Latin from 1473 and in Arabic at Rome in 1593, it remained a textbook in European universities into the seventeenth century.
The Canon treats medicine as an ordered science that joins inherited theory to careful observation and repeated trial.
Your turn to think.
- What does the physician borrow from natural philosophy, and what must he learn from experience?
- Which conditions for testing a drug still seem sound, and which depend on the theory of temperaments?
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