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intrusted to the skill of the Saracens, ^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 piously defended by Casiri, (Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. i. p. 238 - 240.) Most of the versions of Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, &c., are ascribed to Honain, a physician of the Nestorian sect, who flourished at Bagdad in the court of the caliphs, and died A.D. 876. He was at the head of a school or manufacture of translations, and the works of his sons and disciples were published under his name. See Abulpharagius, (Dynast. p. 88, 115, 171 - 174, and apud Asseman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 438,) D'Herbelot, (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 456,) Asseman. (Bibliot. Orient. tom. iii. p. 164,) and Casiri, (Bibliot. Arab. Hispana, tom. i. p. 238, &c. 251, 286 - 290, 302, 304, &c.)]

[Footnote 58: See Mosheim, Institut. Hist. Eccles. p. 181, 214, 236, 257, 315, 388, 396, 438, &c.]

[Footnote 59: The most elegant commentary on the Categories or Predicaments of Aristotle may be found in the Philosophical Arrangements of Mr. James Harris, (London, 1775, in octavo,) who labored to revive the studies of Grecian literature and philosophy.]

[Footnote 60: Abulpharagius, Dynast. p. 81, 222. Bibliot. Arab. Hisp. tom. i. p. 370, 371. In quem (says the primate of the Jacobites) si immiserit selector, oceanum hoc in genere (algebrae) inveniet. The time of Diophantus of Alexandria is unknown; but his six books are still extant, and have been illustrated by the Greek Planudes and the Frenchman Meziriac, (Fabric. Bibliot. Graec. tom. iv. p. 12 - 15.)]

[Footnote 61: Abulfeda (Annal. Moslem. p. 210, 211, vers. Reiske) describes this operation according to Ibn Challecan, and