The Canon of Medicine (
Arabic: القانون في الطب
Al-Qanun
fi al-Tibb "
The Law of Medicine";
Persian: قانون طب
Qanun "
Law";
Latin:
Canon Medicinae
"
Canon of Medicine";
Chinese: 回回藥方 / 回回药方
Huíhui
Yàofāng "
Prescriptions of the Hui
Nationality") is a 14-volume
medical encyclopedia written by
Islamic scientist and
physician
Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and completed
in 1025. The book was based on a combination of his own personal
experience, medieval
Islamic
medicine, the writings of the
Roman
physician
Galen, the
Indian physicians Sushruta
and
Charaka, and
Persian medicine, in addition to
aspects of
Chinese materia medica.
Originally written in the Arabic language, the book was later
translated into a number of other languages, including Persian,
Latin, Chinese,
Hebrew,
German,
French and
English. The
Canon is considered
one of the most famous books in the
history of medicine.
Also known as the
Qanun, which means
"law" in both Arabic and Persian, the
Canon of Medicine
remained a
medical authority up until the
18th century and early 19th century. It set the standards for
medicine in
Europe and the
Islamic world, and is Avicenna's most
renowned written work alongside
The Book of Healing.
Qanun was
used at many medical schools—at University of
Montpellier
, France
, as late as
1650. Much of the book was also translated into
Chinese as the Huihui Yaofang (Prescriptions of the
Hui Nationality) by the Hui people
in Yuan
China
. The Canon also formed the basis of
Unani medicine, a form of traditional medicine practiced in
India
. The principles of medicine described by the
Canon ten centuries ago are still taught at UCLA
and Yale University
, among others, as part of the history of
medicine.
The
Canon is considered the first
pharmacopoeia, and among other things, the
book is known for the introduction of systematic
experimentation and
quantification into the study of
physiology,the discovery of the contagious nature
of
infectious diseases,
George Sarton,
Introduction to the History
of Science.
(
cf. Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq (1997).
Quotations From Famous Historians of Science,
Cyberistan.)the introduction of
quarantine to limit the spread of contagious
diseases, and the introduction of
evidence-based medicine,
experimental medicine,
clinical trials,
randomized controlled
trials,
efficacy tests,D. Craig Brater
and Walter J. Daly (2000), "Clinical pharmacology in the Middle
Ages: Principles that presage the 21st century",
Clinical
Pharmacology & Therapeutics 67 (5), p.
447-450 [449].
clinical
pharmacology,D. Craig Brater and Walter J. Daly (2000),
"Clinical pharmacology in the Middle Ages: Principles that presage
the 21st century",
Clinical Pharmacology &
Therapeutics 67 (5), p. 447-450 [448].
neuropsychiatry,
physiological psychology,Ibrahim B.
Syed PhD, "Islamic Medicine: 1000 years ahead of its times",
Journal of the
Islamic Medical Association, 2002 (2), p. 2-9 [7].
risk factor analysis, and the idea of a
syndrome in the
diagnosis of specific diseases.
George Sarton, the father of the
history of science, wrote in the
Introduction to the History of Science:
Overview
The book explains the causes of
health and
disease. Ibn Sina believed that the
human body cannot be restored to health unless
the causes of both health and disease are determined. He defined
medicine (
tibb) as follows:
Avicenna regarded the causes of good health and diseases to
be:
- The Material Causes
- The Elements
- The Humors
- The Variability of the Tumors
- The Temperaments
- The Psychic Faculties
- The Vital Force
- The Organs
- The Efficient Causes
- The Formal Causes
- The Vital Faculties
- The Final Causes
The
Qanun distinguishes
mediastinitis from
pleurisy and recognises the
contagious nature of phthisis (
tuberculosis of the lung) and the spread of
disease by water and soil. It gives a scientific
diagnosis of
ankylostomiasis and attributes the condition
to an intestinal worm. The
Qanun points out the importance
of
dietetics, the influence of
climate and
environment on health, and the surgical
use of oral
anaesthetics. Ibn Sina
advised
surgeons to treat
cancer in its earliest stages, ensuring the removal
of all the diseased tissue. The
Qanun 's
materia
medica considers some 800 tested
drugs, with comments on their application and
effectiveness. He recommended the
testing of a new drug on animals and humans
prior to general use.
The
earliest known copy of the Canon of Medicine dated 1052 is held in
the collection of the Aga Khan and is to be
housed in the Aga Khan
Museum
planned for Toronto
, Ontario
, Canada
.
Influence in Western world
The Arabic text of the Persian
Qanun was translated into
Latin as
Canon medicinae by
Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century and
into
Hebrew in 1279. Henceforth the
Canon served as the chief guide to medical science in the
West and is said to have influenced
Leonardo da Vinci. Its
encyclopaedic content, its systematic
arrangement and
philosophical plan soon
worked its way into a position of pre-eminence in the medical
literature of Europe, displacing the works of
Galen and becoming the text book for medical
education in the schools of Europe.
The text was read in
the medical schools at Montpellier
and Leuven
as late as
1650, and Arnold C. Klebs described it as "one of the most
significant intellectual phenomena of all times." In the words of
Dr.
William Osler, the
Qanun
has remained "a medical
bible for a longer
time than any other work".The first three books of the Latin
Canon were printed in 1472, and a complete edition
appeared in 1473. The 1491 Hebrew edition is the first appearance
of a medical treatise in Hebrew and the only one produced during
the 15th century. In the last 30 years of the 15th century it
passed through 15 Latin editions. In recent years, a partial
translation into
English was
made.
The influential Canadian physician, Sir
William Osler, described the
Canon as
"the most famous medical textbook ever written" noting that it
remained "a medical bible for a longer time than any other work."
In 2006, Professor John Urquhart noted the relevance of the
Canon to modern medicine, comparing it to an influential
medical work of the 19th century,
The Principles and
Practice of Medicine (1892) by Osler himself, and
concluded:
Mona Nasser Aida Tibi and Emilie Savage-Smith note: "The enduring
respect in the 21st century for a book written a millennium earlier
is testimony to Ibn Sina's achievement."
Experimental medicine
The Canon of Medicine was the first book dealing with
evidence-based medicine,
experimental medicine,
clinical trials,
randomized controlled trials,
efficacy tests,
risk
factor analysis, and the idea of a
syndrome in the
diagnosis of specific diseases.
According to Toby Huff and A. C. Crombie, the
Canon
contained "a set of rules that laid down the conditions for the
experimental use and testing of
drugs" which were "a precise guide for practical
experimentation" in the process of "discovering and proving the
effectiveness of
medical
substances."
Clinical pharmacology
The emphasis of the
Canon on tested medicines laid the
foundations for an experimental approach to
pharmacology. The
Canon laid out the
following rules and principles for testing the effectiveness of new
drugs and
medications, which still form the basis of
clinical pharmacology and
modern
clinical trials:
- "The drug must be free from any extraneous accidental
quality."
- "It must be used on a simple, not a composite, disease."
- "The drug must be tested with two contrary types of diseases,
because sometimes a drug cures one disease by Its essential
qualities and another by its accidental ones."
- "The quality of the drug must correspond to the strength of the
disease. For example, there are some drugs whose heat is less than
the coldness of certain diseases, so that they would have no effect
on them."
- "The time of action must be observed, so that essence and
accident are not confused."
- "The effect of the drug must be seen to occur constantly or in
many cases, for if this did not happen, it was an accidental
effect."
- "The experimentation must be done with the human body, for
testing a drug on a lion or a horse might not prove anything about
its effect on man."
The
Canon lists 800 tested
drugs, including plant and mineral substances,
with comments on their application and effectiveness. For each one,
he described their pharmaceutical actions from a range of 22
possibilities (including resolution, astringency and softening),
and their specific properties according to a grid of 11 types of
diseases.
Inductive logic
While Ibn Sina often relied on
deductive reasoning in
The Book of Healing and other
writings on
logic in Islamic
philosophy, he used a different approach in
The Canon of
Medicine. This text contributed to the development of
inductive logic, which it used to
develop the idea of a
syndrome in the
diagnosis of specific diseases.
The Canon of Medicine was the first to describe the
methods of agreement, difference and
concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic and
the
scientific method.
Pharmaceutical sciences
The book's contribution to the
pharmaceutical sciences include the
introduction of systematic experimentation and quantification into
pharmacology and the study of
physiology, the introduction of
experimental medicine,
evidence-based medicine,
clinical trials,
randomized controlled
trials,
efficacy testsand
clinical pharmacology; the first
careful descriptions of
skin troubles,
sexually transmitted diseases,
perversions and
nervous ailments;
George Sarton,
Introduction to the History of Science.
(
cf. Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq (1997),
Quotations From Famous Historians of Science,
Cyberistan.and the discovery of the
healing
property of gaseous
mercury
besides its
poisonous quality;as well as the
use of
ice to treat
fevers,
and the separation of
medicine from
pharmacology, which was important to
the development of the
pharmaceutical sciences.
- Pharmacotherapy
Avicenna wrote a separate supplement treatise dedicated to the
pharmacotherapy of "Hindiba", a
compound drug he suggested for the treatment of
cancer and other
tumors (see
Cancer therapy below) and which
could also be used for treating other
neoplastic disorders. He gives details on the
drug's properties and uses, and then gives instructions on its
preparation as
medication.
- Pharmacy
The
Canon described no less than 700 preparations of
medications, their properties, mode of
action and their indications. He devoted in fact a whole volume to
simple and compound
drugs in
The Canon of
Medicine. It credits many of them to a variety of Arabic,
Greek and Indian authors, and also includes some drugs imported
from
China, along with
many of Ibn Sina's own original contributions. Using his own
expertise, he was often critical of the descriptions given by
previous authors and revised many of their descriptions.
Anatomy and Physiology
The contributions of the
Canon to
physiology include the introduction of systematic
experimentation and
quantification into the study of
physiology.
Writings on
anatomy in the
Canon
are scattered throughout the text in sections regarding to
illnesses related to certain body parts. The
Canon
included numerous discussions on anatomy and diagrams on certain
body parts, including the first diagrams of the
cranial sutures.
Blood pressure
Avicenna dedicated a chapter of the
Canon to
blood pressure. He was able to discover the
causes of
bleeding and haemorrhage, and
discovered that haemorrhage could be induced by high blood pressure
because of higher levels of
cholesterol
in the blood. This led him to investigate methods of controlling
blood pressure.
Dissection
The
Canon distinguished anatomy "from other aspects of
medicine by its need for a different methodology." It thus
stated:
Neuroanatomy and neurophysiology
Avicenna discovered the
cerebellar
vermis—which he named "vermis"—and the
caudate nucleus, which he named "tailed
nucleus" or "nucleus caudatus". These terms are still used in
modern
neuroanatomy and
neurophysiology.
The
Canon was also the earliest text to note that
intellectual dysfunctions were largely due to deficits in the
brain's middle
ventricle, and that the
frontal lobe of the brain mediated
common sense and
reasoning.
Ophthalmology
The contributions of the
Canon to
ophthalmology in medieval
Islam include its descriptions and explanations on the
physiology of
eye movements, which
still forms a basis of information for modern
ophthalmology. He also provided useful
information on the
optic nerves,
iris, and central and peripheral
facial paralyses.
Another contribution the
Canon made to
ophthalmology was the suggestion that "the
optic nerves did cross."
Cardiovascular system
In its explanation of the
cardiovascular system,
The Canon of
Medicine "erroneously accepted the Greek notion regarding the
existence of a hole in the ventricular septum by which the blood
traveled between the ventricles." This would not be corrected until
Ibn al-Nafis'
Commentary on Anatomy
in Avicenna's Canon provides the first description of the
pulmonary circulation in 1242.
Ibn al-Nafis also criticized the
Canon for its "statement
that the blood that is in the right side is to nourish the heart",
which he replaced with a theory showing insight into the
coronary circulation: "the nourishment
to the heart is from the blood that goes through the vessels that
permeate the body of the heart." Despite these criticisms, Avicenna
"had a vision of blood circulation," and "correctly wrote on the
cardiac cycles and
valvular function."
Cardiology
In
cardiology,
The Canon of
Medicine is the first book to mention the
vasovagal syncope and
carotid sinus
hypersensitivity. According to several scholars, "Article 5
from Book III of this encyclopedia described
drop attacks following compression of the
carotid artery,
yawning,
fatigue and
flushing, which together
resemble
neurogenic syncope. Such a description is most
likely the first mention of carotid sinus hypersensitivity and
vasovagal syncope." The chapter was dedicated to “brain diseases
effecting intentional movements”, and refers to carotid sinus
hypersensitivity as
Al-Lawa, meaning "
torsion".
Pulsology and sphygmology
The
Canon was a pioneering text in
pulsology and sphygmology. In ancient times,
Galen as well as
Chinese physicians erroneously
believed that there was a unique type of
pulse
for every
organ of the body and for
every
disease. Galen also erroneously
believed that "every part of an
artery
pulsates simultaneously" and that the motion of the pulse was due
to natural motions (the arteries expanding and contracting
naturally) as opposed to foced motions (the
heart causing the arteries to either expand or
contract).
The first correct explanation of pulsation was given by Avicenna,
after he refined Galen's theory of the pulse and discovered the
following in
The Canon of Medicine:
The
Canon also pioneered the modern approach of examining
the pulse through the examination of the
wrist, which is still practiced in modern times. His
reasons for choosing the wrist as the ideal location is due to it
being easilyavailable and the patient not needing to be distressed
at the exposure of his/her body. The Latin translation of his
Canon also laid the foundations for the later invention of
the
sphygmograph.
Avicenna also wrote a supplemental treatise on diagnosing diseases
using only the methods of feeling the pulse and observing
inhalation. He was often capable of finding the
symptoms of certain diseases only by feeling a patient's
pulse.
Etiology and Pathology
In
etiology and
pathology, the
Canon described the
contagious nature of
infectious
diseases such as
phthisis and
tuberculosis, the distribution of
disease by
water and
soil, and the existence of
sexually transmitted disease.
The
Canon provides a full understanding of the
pathology of contagious disease.
The
Canon also distinguished between
mediastinitis and
pleurisy, provided careful descriptions of skin
troubles,
perversions, and
nervous ailments."
Meningitis was also first described in
The Canon of Medicine, which also described the first
known treatments for
cancer. The book also
recognized the
parasitic diseases
of
Ascaris,
Enterobius,
tapeworms,
and
Guinea worms.
Since the
Canon,
Bimaristan
hospitals were created with separate wards for specific
illnesses, so that people with contagious diseases
could be kept away from other patients who do not have any
contagious diseases.
Bacteriology and microbiology
The
Canon stated that bodily
secretions are contaminated by "foul foreign
earthly bodies" before a person becomes infected, but he did not
view these bodies as primary causes of
disease.
Cancer therapy
In
cancer therapy, the
Canon recognized
cancer as a
tumor. He noted that a "cancerous tumour
progressively increases in size, is destructive and spreads roots
which insinuate themselves amongst the tissue elements." He also
attempted the earliest known treatments for cancer. One method he
discovered was the "Hindiba", a herbal compound drug which
Ibn al-Baitar later identified as having
"anticancer" properties and which could also treat other
tumors and
neoplastic
disorders. After recognizing its usefulness in treating neoplastic
disorders, Hindiba was
patented in 1997 by
Nil Sari, Hanzade Dogan, and John K. Snyder. The preferred
medication the
Canon recommended for
skin cancer and
skin
conditions in general was
zinc
oxide.
Another method for treating cancer first described in the
Canon was a surgical treatment. It stated that the
excision should be radical and that all
diseased
tissue should be removed,
which included the use of
amputation or
the removal of
veins running in the direction
of the
tumor. He also recommended the use of
cauterization for the area being
treated if necessary. However, the
Canon notes that
surgery should only be used as a last resort and that caution
should be taken, pointing out that "most of the time, excision
increases the cancer."
The
Canon was also the first to describe the symptoms of
esophageal cancer and the first to
refer to it as "cancer of the
esophagus."
Hepatology
The advances of the
Canon in
hepatology includes its introduction of new
methods of
hepatitis treatment.
Quarantine
The
Canon introduced
quarantine
as a means of limiting the spread of contagious diseases.
Humours and Temperaments
Four Humours
The Canon of Medicine supports the ancient theory of
Four Humours, but refines in various ways.
In disease
pathogenesis, for example,
Avicenna "added his own view of different types of spirits (or
vital life essences) and souls, whose disturbances might lead to
bodily diseases because of a close association between them and
such master organs as the brain and heart. An element of such
belief is apparent in the chapter of
al-Lawa" (see
Cardiology section), which relates "the
manifestations to an interruption of vital life essence to the
brain." He combined his own view with that of the Four Humours to
establish a new doctrine to explain the mechanisms of various
diseases in another work he wrote,
Treatise on
Pulse:
Four Temperaments
The
Canon also adopted the ancient theory of
Four Temperaments and extended it to
encompass "
emotional aspects,
mental capacity,
moral
attitudes,
self-awareness, movements
and
dreams." It summarized Avicenna's own
theory of four
temperaments in a
table presented as
follows:
|
Avicenna's four primary
temperaments
|
| Evidence |
Hot |
Cold |
Moist |
Dry |
| Morbid states |
inflammations become febrile |
fevers related to serious humour, rheumatism |
lassitude |
loss of vigour |
| Functional power |
deficient energy |
deficient digestive power |
difficult digestion |
|
| Subjective sensations |
bitter taste, excessive
thirst, burning at cardia |
Lack of desire for fluids |
mucoid salivation, sleepiness |
insomnia, wakefulness |
| Physical signs |
high pulse rate, lassitude |
flaccid joints |
diarrhea, swollen eyelids, rough skin, acquired habit |
rough skin, acquired habit |
| Foods & medicines |
calefacients harmful, infrigidants beneficial |
infrigidants harmful, calefacients beneficial |
moist articles harmful |
dry regimen harmful, humectants beneficial |
| Relation to weather |
worse in summer |
worse in winter |
|
bad in autumn |
Neurosciences and Psychology
In
Islamic psychology and
neurosciences, the
Canon noted
the close relationship between
emotions and
the physical condition, and the author felt that
music had a definite physical and psychological effect
on patients.
Clinical psychology and psychotherapy
In
clinical psychology and
psychotherapy, Avicenna often used
psychological methods to treat his patients.Amber Haque (2004),
"Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim
Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists",
Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4):
357-377 [366]. One such
case study is
when a prince of Persia had melancholia and suffered from the
delusion that he is a
cow, and who would low like a cow crying "Kill me so
that a good stew may be made of my flesh" and would never eat
anything. Avicenna was persuaded to the case and sent a message to
the patient, asking him to be happy as the butcher was coming to
slaughter him, and the sick man rejoiced. When Avicenna approached
the prince with a knife in his hand, he asked "where is the cow so
I may kill it." The patient then lowed like a cow to indicate where
he was. "By order of the butcher, the patient was also laid on the
ground for slaughter." When Avicenna approached the patient
pretending to slaughter him, he said, "the cow is too lean and not
ready to be killed. He must be fed properly and I will kill it when
it becomes healthy and fat." The patient was then offered food
which he ate eagerly and gradually "gained strength, got rid of his
delusion, and was completely cured."
Among the many other
psychological
disorders described in the
Qanun, one is of unusual
interest:
love sickness. Ibn Sina is
reputed to have diagnosed this condition in a Prince in Jurjan who
lay sick and whose malady had baffled local doctors. He noted a
fluttering in the Prince's pulse when the address and name of his
beloved were mentioned. The great doctor had a simple remedy: unite
the sufferer with the beloved.
Neurology and neuropathology
The book's contributions in
neurology and
neuropathology include its diagnosis
of
facial nerve paralysis,
its distinction between brain
paralysis
and
hyperaemia, and most importantly the
discovery of
meningitis. It diagnosed
meningitis as a disease induced by the
brain
itself and differentiated it from infectious brain disease, and its
author was also able to diagnose and describe the type of
meningitis induced by an infection in other parts of the
body.
Neuropsychiatry and neuropsychology
The
Canon was a pioneering text in
neuropsychiatry and
neuropsychology. It first described the
neuropsychiatric conditions of
hallucination,
insomnia,
mania,
nightmare,
melancholia,
dementia,
epilepsy,
paralysis,
stroke,
vertigo and
tremor. Three chapters of
The Canon of
Medicine were dedicated to neuropsychiatry.
The book defined
madness (
Junun)
as a mental condition in which
reality is
replaced by
fantasy, and discovered that it
is a disorder of
reason with its origin in
the middle part of the
brain. It also
described a condition resembling
schizophrenia which it referred to as
Junun Mufrit (severe madness), which was clearly
distinguished from other forms of madness such as
mania,
rabies, and
manic depressive psychosis. The author observed that patients
suffering from schizophrenia-like severe madness show
agitation, behavioural and sleep
disturbance, give inappropriate answers to questions, and in some
cases are incapable of speaking at times. The book states that such
patients need to be restrained, in order to avoid any harm they may
cause to themselves or to others.Hanafy A. Youssef, Fatma A.
Youssef and T. R. Dening (1996), "Evidence for the existence of
schizophrenia in medieval Islamic society",
History of
Psychiatry 7: 55-62 [57].
A chapter of the
Canon was also dedicated to
mania and
rabies. It described
mania as bestial madness characterized by rapid onset and
remission, with
agitation and
irritability, and described rabies as a type of
mania.
Psychoanalysis
The Canon of Medicine extended the theory of
temperaments to encompass "
emotional aspects, mental capacity,
moral attitudes,
self-awareness, movements and
dreams." This work may thus be considered a
"forerunner of twentieth century
psychoanalysis."
Psychophysiology and psychosomatic medicine
The
Canon was an early text in
psychophysiology and
psychosomatic medicine, and the first
to recognize '
physiological
psychology' in the treatment of illnesses involving
emotions, and developed a system for associating
changes in the
pulse rate with inner feelings,
which is seen as an anticipation of the
word association test attributed to
Carl Jung. Avicenna identified
love sickness (
Ishq) ... illnesses
together. It described
melancholia
(
depression) as a type of
mood disorder in which the person may become
suspicious and develop certain types of
phobias. It stated that
anger
heralded the transition of melancholia to
mania, and explained that
humidity inside the head can contribute to mood
disorders. It recognized that this occurs when the amount of
breath changes:
happiness increases the breath, which leads to
increased moisture inside the brain, but if this moisture goes
beyond its limits, the brain would lose control over its
rationality and lead to mental disorders. It
also described symptoms and treatments for
nightmare,
epilepsy, and
weak
memory.
Sleep Medicine
An early psychological perspective on
bedwetting was given in
The Canon of
Medicine:
Surgery
In
surgery, the
Canon was the first
to describe the surgical procedure of
intubation in order to facilitate
breathing.
Anesthesia
The
Canon described the "soporific sponge", an
anasthetic imbued with
aromatics and
narcotics,
which was to be placed under a patient's nose during surgical
operations.
Cancer therapy
- See Etiology and
Pathology above
Hirudotherapy
Hirudotherapy, the use of
medicinal leech for medical purposes, was
introduced by
The Canon of Medicine. It considered the
application of
leech to be more useful than
cupping in "letting off the
blood from deeper parts of the body." He also
introduced the use of leech as treatment for
skin disease. Leech therapy became a popular
method in
medieval Europe due to the
influence of his
Canon.
Other contributions
Chromotherapy
The
Canon, which described colour to be of vital
importance in
diagnosis and
treatment, made significant contributions
to
chromotherapy. It stated that
"Color is an observable symptom of disease" and also developed a
chart that related colour to the
temperature and physical condition of the body.
His view was that red moved the blood, blue or white cooled it, and
yellow reduced muscular pain and inflammation. The author further
discussed the properties of colours for healing and was "the first
to establish that the wrong colour suggested for therapy would
elicit no response in specific diseases." As an example, "he
observed that a person with a nosebleed should not gaze at things
of a brilliant red color and should not be exposed to red light
because this would stimulate the
sanguineous humor, whereas blue would
soothe it and reduce blood flow."
Dermatology
In
dermatology, the preferred medication
the
Canon recommended for
skin
conditions, including
skin cancer,
was
zinc oxide. Though today it is no
longer used for treating skin cancer, it is still widely used today
to treat a variety of other skin conditions, in products such as
baby powder and creams to treat
diaper rashes,
calamine
cream, anti-
dandruff shampoos, and
antiseptic
ointments.
Endocrinology
In
endocrinology, the
Canon
provided a detailed account on
diabetes mellitus in
The Canon of
Medicine, "describing the abnormal appetite and the collapse
of sexual functions and he documented the sweet taste of diabetic
urine." Like
Aretaeus of
Cappadocia before him, the
Canon recognized a primary
and secondary diabetes. It also described diabetic
gangrene, and treated diabetes using a mixture of
lupine,
trigonella
(
fenugreek), and
zedoary seed, which produces a considerable
reduction in the excretion of sugar, a treatment which is still
prescribed in modern times. It also "described diabetes insipidus
very precisely for the first time", though it was later
Johann Peter Frank (1745-1821) who first
differentiated between diabetes mellitus and diabetes
insipidus.
Gerontology and Geriatrics
The Canon of Medicine was the first book to offer
instruction for the care of the
aged,
foreshadowing modern
gerontology and
geriatrics. A chapter entitled "Regimen
of Old Age" stated that "old folk need plenty of sleep. Time spent
on the couch should be liberal—more than is legitimate for adults."
It further stated that after waking up, the body should be
anointed with
oil "to stimulate
the sensitive faculties". Regarding
exercise, it recommended
walking or
horse-riding. It stated:
The book said that if the body is healthy, it can perform
attempered exercises, but if one part of the body is infirm, "then
that part should not be exercised until after the rest", and that
exercises are not to be strictly graduated "as if the body were to
be strengthened". The
Canon recognized four periods of
life: the period of
growth,
prime
of life, period of
elderly decline
(from forty to sixty), and
decrepit
age. He states that during the last period, "there is hardness of
their
bones, roughness of the
skin, and the long time since they produced
semen,
blood and vaporal
breath". However, he agreed with
Galen that the
earth element is more prominent in
the aged and decrepit than in other periods. Avicenna did not agree
with the concept of infirmity, however, stating:
Thesis III of the
Canon
discussed the
diet suitable for
old people. Avicenna wrote that they should
be given
food in small amounts at a time and
that they can have two to three meals a day, divided up according
to the digestive powers and general condition of the old person in
question. He also recommended
fruits, such as
figs and
prunes. He also
stated:
The book also dedicated several sections of its Thesis III to
elderly patients who become
constipated, and wrote:
Phytotherapy
In
phytotherapy, the
Canon
introduced the medicinal use of
Taxus
baccata L. He named this herbal
drug as
"Zarnab" and used it as a
cardiac remedy. This
was the first known use of a
calcium channel blocker drug, which
were not used in the
Western world
until the 1960s.
See also
Notes and References
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