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10 INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY,
SO many centuries, we need not wonder at the loss of these
writers thus branded as nearly useless.
The Greek writers, Oribasius, Aetius, Egineta, who succeeded
Galen, were such servile copiers of him, that they
merit not notice. At length, after the lapse of a few cen-
turies, the Arabs, inspired by the zeal of a new religion,
burst from their sandy deserts, and over-run the west of
Asia, the north of Africa, and south of Europe. As soon
as they h^d formed regular establishments, they began to
attend to the sciences, and translated the most popular
Gi'eek authors.
In this they differed from the later Greeks, that being
devoid of that superstitious veneration which the Greeks
possessed for the writers of their golden age of literature,
they did not confine themselves to the knowledge that had
been delivered by those writers, but added much of their
own. To them physicians were indebted for the introduction
into practice of berberries, camphire, cloves, wallflower,
cassia fistula, galangais, hyssop, kerraes, lavender,
mace, manna, Persian manna, mezereon, myrobalans, nutmegs,
nymphaea, rhubarb, opium, sugar, gum sandarac,
red Sanders, sebestens, senna, tamarinds, hops, and zedoary.
Though some of these medical plants have fallen into desuetude,
others still remain, and form some of the principal
instruments of physicians to this day. Among these
Arab v/riters Serapio stands pre-eminent, although Rhazis,
Avicena, Actuarius (who wrote in Greek), and Mesne,
must not be forgotten ; and it may be also mentioned, to
the honour of the Arabs, that it is to them we are indebted,
if not for the invention, yet for the introduction of chemical
medicines into practice, so that we may easily estimate
the great improvements of vv'hich they were the introducers.
The writings of Galen, and of his Greek and Arabian
disciples, were the only ones taught in the medical schools
of Europe, through the medium of wretched translations,
from the seventh to the fifteenth century. As to those
parts of natural history, not comprised in the multifarious
materia medica of this period, the knowledge of them was
at the lowest ebb. What little was known was a mixture
of extracts from Pliny, and the relations of travellers who
endeavoured to give a wonderful cast to the most common
appearances; who explained the mercantile names of articles
by some fancied etymology, and then invented a tale to
support the interpretation. In short, in the natural his-
torians of this lung period, as Hildeguard, Sylvaticus,