The Modern Medical Science: a Journey Through History

maintenance of the body’s heat. Abu’l-Faraj held that there are canals in the nerves through which sensations and movements are transmitted.
The contributions of Muslims in the field of bacteriology are quite revolutionary. According to Browne, Muslims were fully aware of the theory of germs. Ibn Sinã was the first to state that bodily secretion is contaminated by foul foreign earthly bodies before getting the infection. Ibn Khätimah of the 14th century stated that man is surrounded by minute bodies which enter the human body and cause disease. In the same century when the great plague ravaged the world, and the chief causes of it, based on superstition, were said to be either the Jews or volcanic eruptions or the birth of a calf with two heads, two Muslim doctors, Ibn Khatib (1313-1374) and Ibn Khätimah (1323-1369), wrote on it treatises which were based on scientific observations.5
Some Muslims also gave new suggestions regarding the treatment of diseases. In this connection Abu’1 Hasan, the physician of Adud al-Daulah introduced the process of bleeding as a treatment of cerebral hemorrhage which is often due to blood pressure. Al-Razi suggested nourishing food for the treatment of general weakness. The Muslim physicians were the first to use the stomach tube for the performance of gastric lavage in the case of gas poisoning. They were fully aware of the principles of opotherapy centuries before Browne Sequard to whom this method of treatment is ascribed. Said Ibn Bishr Ibn ‘Abdus suggested light food and cold producing medicines for the treatment of general paralysis and facial paralysis. Ibn al-Wãfid gave emphasis upon the treatment of diseases through food control. They discovered the treatment for epidemic jaundice,

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