THE CANON OF MEDICINEOF AVICENNA

AMS PRESSNEW YORK

ReP,o,lce,l

in-

/.c-i-;i.,.ss.Ji

of the

Trusts

of the

Unt.sh .11.*-.

A physician and From an" \ "Teatearly .Persian

his patient.

MS.

(Add. 27.261.

f.

371b)

reader of ancient books, Greek, Persian, Latin, astronomv, both Arabian, and Svriac and skilled in medicine and the rules of their with respect to their scientific principles and he was experienced in all that bealeth practical applications conversant with the virtues of every plant, the bodv and hurteth He was versed in the dried and fresh, the baneful and the useful. whole range wisdom of the philosophers, and had compassed the the knowledge-tree. of medical science and other branches of

sage a

;

;

;

Uth

Xiglil'Hiirton;

Lane.)

Library of Congress Cataloging

in

Publication Data

Avicenna, 980-1037Avicenna. A treatise on the Canon of medicine of

Original work has title: al-Qanun fi al-tibb. Bibliography: p. Medicine, Arabic. I. Grmier, Oskar Cameron, 1. Title.' [DEEM: WZ290 A957q bk. 1 II. 73-12409 610 E128.3-A9732 1973

tr,

^W^

ISBN: 0-404-11231-5

U 7-d- .J i.J

H\/

Reprinted from the edition of 1930, London First AMS edition published in 1973 Manfuactured in the United States of AmericaAMS PRESS INC. NEW YORK, N. Y.

10003

PREFACEThe purpose of the (i) To furnishpresent treatisea

translation

is two-fold of the First

:

Canon of Medicine of Avicenna.

The

has been omitted in favour of the first cordis. This assists in the second object of this treatise. Distinctively large type is used for the translation. (2) To present a study of its mystical philosophy {tassawuf), especially showing where this and modern biological knowledge are reciprocally illuminative. The words of the late Prof. E. G. Browne may be quoted " Even if we rate the originality of Arabian here medicine at:

Book of the section on Anatomy half of the Be viribus

venture to think that it will deserve more careful and systematic study." Furthermore, the Thomistic philosophy of human natureIis

the lowest,

discussed, and its applicability to the of the future is definitely enunciated.specially

Medicine

is made to the School of Institution (University of London) for_ signal help in the acquisition of the Arabic, Persian, and Chinese essential to the purposes of the treatise.

grateful Oriental Studies,

A

acknowledgment

London

O.London, Becember,1929.

Cameron Gruner.

v

CONTENTSA.Preliminary Thesis:I.

The Treatisepagein relation to

The Canon of Medicine ",".." " modern thought The intellectual culture contemporary with Avicenna(b) In the In the central Saracen empire, Among the (c) empire, western Saracen Chinese. The knowledge presented by the Canon, as compared " " " " with that of to-day ( 7- 1 ) " ,; Canon. (a) The Canon is a precis, (b) The word " knowledge." (d) Mystical (V) The word

*

(a)

II.

5

insight.

The basic difference between the Canon and III. Medicine ( 19-22) and IV. Special differences between the Canon;

Medicine ( 23-37) not now (a) Conceptions .known to Avicenna known to modern recognised, (b) Conceptions (c) Knowmedicine, but not to Avicenna. and modern ledge common to Avicennamedicine.treatise VI. Brief survey of the Intention of this 55-108) The doctrine of Matter and Form ( Death and Destiny ( 11 1-1 1 5)" " " The Humours ( 116, 117) The basis of Anatomy in the Canon Q The doctrine of the Breath ( 136-150) '1

-----""" -------Modern-

8

Modern1

V

Of

interest to the Scholar ( 38)

-

------" "-

($

40-44)

\

19

39I2

" -

"

18-127)

Scholastic psychology

(

155-165)'

-----I39.H3-

?, 03

12.,

-

psychical Faculties facing p. 143 Coloured Plate representing the corporeal and

The Bath-house

( 198,

199)

:

"

~

"

"-

""

"'

Expiative causes of Disease ( 201) 208-224, 234, 235)Chinese sphygmology (

Ifc20

-

P

-

-

'

(Latin, Arabic, Chinese) facing p. 289 Table of Terminology relative to the Pulse'

J>

The

doctrine of the pulse ( 218-220, 225-230, 231-233) Urinalysis, ancient versus modern ( 238-239) Dietetics ( 195, 248-253) Ornamental Plate, with special portraits

-----'

293-308 349 219 4 4'

\ / and then wish to freeze it, it will do so more quickly than cold water would, because the cold penetrates more easily between the particles separated from one another by the preceding heat. The human body is not as sensitive to the cold of 258. spring as it is to that of autumn, because in spring the body

_

passes from a coldness to which it is already acclimatised, to an increasing warmth. In autumn, the reverse is the case, for after being relaxed by the summer heat, the body is suddenly hit by cold this in spite of the fact that autumn approaches winter, whereas spring recedes from it.;

Change of seasons has to do with the kind of diseases 259. peculiar to each climate. Consequently the prudent physician will carefully study his own climate (atmospheric conditionsday by day and month by month) and countrybetter to treat the diseasesin order the

and maintain his patient's health by an appropriate mode of life, and (in order the better to choose) the regiminal measures appropriate to that climate andcountry.

Sometimes one day of a season is like some one day 260. of another season and sometimes it is not. Some days in;

1

82

THE CANON OF MEDICINE;

some spring days are summer-like ; winter are spring-like of a some days in autumn are hot and cold during the coursesingle day.

which body are ascribed in this chapter at least in part to the changes are introduced to ground itself. the seasons produce in the (mod. " ground-air," " ground- water," " ground-fire

174.

The changes which

the seasons produce on the

human

We

hints at is ground-temperature). That which the Canon here accurate in the light of modern investigations. found to be entirely Movement of ground-air. In the interstices of the 8 175 " vapour," which moves in and out of soil there is an abundance of ground-water moves up and the earth into the atmosphere, as the It lung. down. We may rightly picture the earth as a huge the former is if exhales ground-air into the air we breathe, and owing to a high ground-water level, the exhaled air will be humid, be low, the exhaled air " damp " if the temperature of the earth we breathe will if the ground-air be polluted the air will be cold earth as a lung is given in become fouled. The conception of the almost those very words by Avicenna (255). Movement of ground-water. The ground-water may 176. move merely up and down, or it may travel horizontally even to great season, the nature Its height varies with the rains, the distances. the subsoil, and the presence of of the rock beneath, the character of The movevegetation (crops, undergrowth, woodland, forestland). compared with tidal movements. The ment up and down may be "waters under the earth" move, as do the seas. Clearly, then, land, all have wide floods and droughts, swampland and gravelly with vegetation' also alters natural conThe interference effects. ;

the idea of

whether beneficially or detrimentally to human welfare. Lane-Notter (Enc. Brit. 25, p. 348), states that it has been estimated land, and transpire that an acre of cabbages will absorb from the more than ten tons of water per day, when the weather from its leavesditions,is

destruction of trees arrests the upward movement of air ground-water, which previously was carried high up into the considerable at as if by so many chimneys, and so affects other placesfine.

The

c\\

sf3.11.CGS

Innumerable living Practical bearing of these facts. ground-water. things pass the whole, or part of their lives in the and horizontally They are carried along with it, both to the surface, underground, possibly to great distances. The following groups may be specified (1) Bacteria. These are derived from (a) the habitations, from earth's surface from refuse in the neighbourhood of (b) deeper strata: cessexcreta, trade-effluents, slaughter-houses, which do not necessarily filter off the organisms. (2) Protozoa.177.:

pools,(3)

Moulds and spore-bearing organisms

generally.

(4)

Inverte-

brates of

manyall

These

orders. flourish

according to the presence of putrefactive

THE CANON OF MEDICINE

183

matters in the soil (vegetable or animal), according to the groundtemperature, and according to degrees of anaerobic state (which has to do with cycles of development)." The earth, is a great stomach, in which everything is dissolved, digested and transformed, and each being draws its nutriment from the earth; an elch living being is a stomach that serves as a tomb for other forms, and from which new form! spring into existence." (Paracelsus, Paramirum" p.I

205.)

organisms.

Organisms gain access to the human body (a) directly from the surface soil, from the drinking water, from insufficiently cleansed vegetable foods, partly decayed vegetables or vegetables which have become stale the markets, from the inhalation of infected dust (especially the dust of earth pulverised by being parched in times of drought), (J,) indirectly, by contamination of food by insects whose larvae infest the soil to an extraordinary extent by use of vegetables infected by invertebrates which themselves harbour pathogenic

m

m

;

b

Diseases associated with ground-water. 178. Damp soil favours putrefaction, with ultimate pollution of the air Phthisis is favoured such localities. When the soil is actually wet, from the rising of the ground-water, typhoid epidemics have been noted (Pettenkofer). Fleas on rats which burrow into soil polluted by plague-infected ground- water become infected themselves. : Diseases associated with variations of earth-temperature 9 n l Cold soil 'r favours bronchitis and other chest complaints Warm soil favours the multiplication of certain organisms those which flourish best at certain temperatures, and anaerobically. ^Favoured ^ by admixture of the soil with manure.) The subject is therefore plainly of importance both in 180. regard to the study of pandemics, epidemics and endemic diseases and regard to the daily condition of the individual patient, the progress of his disease, and even the exact form which a disease takes in his case. As Avicenna says, the practitioner would benefit by noting the successions of weather-changes, the type of the season and the seasonal cycles, especially interpreted in terms of movements of the water, air, and " fire " in the earth.

m

1

J

m

4.

healthy temperament,"!

The Influence of Seasonal Changes on the Body 261. When a season is harmonious* for a person ofit is

appropriate for him, but not so

if

the

m

onious -'' Cf. " conformity with the laws of nature '* (Li Ki VI case the season is considered as the variable, and the human teml + the perament t constant. But it may be noted that the whole of our life is a matter of conformity with the laws of nature," from highest to lowest. If the ''Government conforms in all respects, thus exhibiting the Great Conformityrequiring S r mdS a a 6r wills and if e ach individual in turn conforms! the o lH + e M eal State rhe regard to the incidence of the individual being is very wide, and this section of the Canon becomes suen Sx, cct P 535)'

ia

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l84

THE CANON OF MEDICINE

But* if deviation from person is of unhealthy temperament. be harmonious or not equipoise be marked, then the season will become debilitated.? correspondingly, but the person may temperaWhen a season is appropriate for a person of unhealthy ment, the contrary holds. When the nature of two seasons at the commence262

and yet the alterament is opposite to that at their termination, (because not of long duration), tion from the mean is not great southerly winter is followed by a northeras, for example, when a will be more beneficial to the human ly spring the second season

body than the

first,

and

will

attemper the body.

This

is

because

action to the southerly winter. the northerly spring is opposite in the spring very wet, the latter If the winter be very dry and But if the spring is not modifies the dryness of the former. its modifying moistening very humid and does not last long, then

influence will not be deleterious. injurious to lite than single seasonal change is less 263 question is the change are repeated changessupposing not one which reverses a previous liable to prove mortal, and_

_

.

A

m

264thatis

one the temperaments of the atmosphere putrefactive proto hot and moist is more favourable

Among

cesses.

265hills

Atmospheric changes are

common;

in

some

regions,

especially in the depths of the valleys

they are only rare on.

it is

with

and high mountains. are normal in character It is better when seasons 266 and the winter cold ; so better that summer should be hot in character, If seasons are not normal each season.;

serious maladies will arise. year are of uniform quality If all the seasons in one 267 bad cold, all through the year) it is a (for instance, wet, dry, hot, quality conformity with the year there will be many diseases in lr a The subsequent seasons will be fortunate, of the year. type, how illness of corresponding single season can arouse much much the more will not a whole year arouse ? is liable to person of phlegmatic temperament 268 convulsions and trismus, epilepsy, paralysis, apoplexy,_

A

develop

the like, in a cold season. may develop person of choleric temperament 269 S inflammatory swellings tn a delirium 5 mania, acute fevers, acute

A

and the laws of nature as the Taking the human nature as the variable, constant^ non-equable person weak. ^ non _ proportional season would make a very*i.e.,

'F

hot season.

THE CANON OF MEDICINE 185 How much the worse would it not be if the character_

of that season persisted throughout a whole year ? With a premature winter, winterly diseases come on 270.early.

The

m gty-

a premature summer, summer diseases arise early. diseases of the corresponding season will change accord_.

With

unduly prolonged season predisposes to many the case of summer and autumn. Note that the effects of the changing seasons are not 272. due to the season itself, but to the quality which is changed along with them, for this exerts a marked effect upon the states of the body. A change from heat to cold in the course of a single day, produces a change in the body accordingly. A rainy autumn followed by a temperate winter (not 273. without some cold, and yet not too cold, considering the geo271.illnesses, especially in

An

graphical region) is more healthy. a moderately rainy summer would be

A

more

rainy soring followed by likely to be healthy.is

See also 581, where the effect of the seasons on the pulse

discussed.

5.

The Properties

of

Healthy Air

274. The substance of the air is good when (i) it is not contaminated with extraneous matter, such as the vapours [from marshes or lakes, or from canals or open sewers Aegineta or the gaseous products from chemical works, etc. modern]' or smoke and soot.* It is open to the sky [i.e. not shut in (2) by high mountains: Aegineta; and, generally, is able to circulate freely round us Nash]. (3) Is not confined in caves [cf. Grotto del Cane], or between high walls, or shut up in houses (or:

;

:

:

m underground cisterns).275.

moreit is

Once a putrefactive process has begun in the air, it is likely to continue if the air is free and exposed than when

enclosed and concealed. Except for that, it is better that should be free and exposed. 276. Healthy air remains clear unless there be admixed with it vapours from lakes or from stagnant and deep waters or marshy lands, or from places where potherbs are cultivated especially cabbages and herb rocket or where certain resinous trees or trees of bad temperament (box, yew) grow, or where nuts or figs grow, or where there are offensive odours and evil-smellingair;

* n may ai S o add: germ-laden dust, or