ll afforded the same
spacious level, the same unclouded horizon. In the plains of Sinaar, and
a second time in those of Cufa, his mathematicians accurately measured
a degree of the great circle of the earth, and determined at twenty-four
thousand miles the entire circumference of our globe. From the reign
of the Abbassides to that of the grandchildren of Tamerlane, the
stars, without the aid of glasses, were diligently observed; and the
astronomical tables of Bagdad, Spain, and Samarcand, correct some minute
errors, without daring to renounce the hypothesis of Ptolemy, without
advancing a step towards the discovery of the solar system. In the
Eastern courts, the truths of science could be recommended only by
ignorance and folly, and the astronomer would have been disregarded,
had he not debased his wisdom or honesty by the vain predictions of
astrology. But in the science of medicine, the Arabians have been
deservedly applauded. The names of Mesua and Geber, of Razis and
Avicenna, are ranked with the Grecian masters; in the city of Bagdad,
eight hundred and sixty physicians were licensed to exercise their
lucrative profession: in Spain, the life of the Catholic princes was
intrusted to the skill of the Saracens, and the school of Salerno, their
legitimate offspring, revived in Italy and Europe the precepts of the
healing art. 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, botany, and chemistry, 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