In his reign, Alexandria regained some of her
fame as a seat of medicine ; and the patriarch
of that city, a celebrated physician, visited Bagdad
to prescribe for one of the Caliph's wives, who
had fallen sick. One of the most distinguished
Arab physicians was Mesue, the son of a druggist
who studied under Gabriel Bactishma, the son
of George, and he was employed by the Caliph
to translate into Arabic all the medical works
that could be found.
64 A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICINE.
Rhazes, a native of Persia, born in a.d. 852,
settled in Bagdad as a physician when thirty
years of age. His modern fame is based on the
fact that he was the first physician who wrote
upon small-pox and measles, and his work was
so highly esteemed in his own time that it
was translated into Greek, by order of one of
the emperors.
Haly Abbas, a.d. 980, a prolific Arabian
writer, left an elaborate description of the
medical writers of his country.
Avicenna flourished about the same time as
Abbas, and his fame as a physician was founded
upon a work called " The Canon," which was a
text book amongst the Arabs for nearly three
centuries, and in Europe it was highly esteemed
throughout the Dark Ages. During Avicenna's
time the distant provinces of the empire were
severed from the Caliphate, and the military
element assumed sijpreme power. Henceforth
the progress of science in all its branches was
stayed. Ultimately the advancing Turk swarmed
over Bagdad, and science disappeared.
IN WESTERN AND EASTERN EUROPE. 65

When the Arabs penetrated Spain in a.d.
