in a fortress, from which, however, he managed eventually to make his escape to the Court of Ibn Kakujah, in Ispahan. He resided in that city during the following fourteen years, and it was there that he wrote his two principal works—the famous medical treatise known as the "Canon," and the equally celebrated cyclopaedic work on philosophy. Worn out by his incessant and most exhausting literary labors and by his excesses in other directions, Avicenna died in June, 1037 A. D., while he was accompanying the Emir on his expedition to Hamadan. His tomb may still be seen in the latter city.
Neuburger, from whose excellent History of Medicine the preceding details have been gleaned, makes the statement that the treatise in which Avicenna's clinical experience was recorded has not come down to our time, and that, consequently, we lack the means of estimating just how great a physician—just how close a clinical observer and how wise a practitioner—he really was. So far, however, as may be judged from the evidence furnished by the Canon, Avicenna was not the equal, in all practical matters relating to medicine, of Haly Abbas and of Rhazes. He was perhaps too much inclined to "look at bedside phenomena through the spectacles of preconceived theories." In brief, he was, first and foremost, a philosopher, and only in a subordinate degree a physician, although a most excellent one. In Book III., where he discusses certain surgical procedures, statements are made which justify the belief that Avicenna was acquainted with intubation of the larynx.
Le Clerc mentions six other Persians who, during the tenth century of the present era, gained more or less distinction as physicians. In the following paragraphs brief notices are given of each of these men.
Eben el Khammar, born in 942 A. D., was a Christian and an excellent practitioner. He was well versed in the science of medicine and a writer of some importance. Date of death unknown.
Abou Sahl el Messihy, who was also a Christian, was a contemporary and intimate friend of Avicenna. He died in 1000 A. D. He was the author of a complete and very
