(9) From those early centuries till the fall
of Constantinople there is very little of interest medically. A few
names stand out prominently, but it is mainly a blank period in our
records. Perhaps one man may be mentioned, as he had a great influence
on later ages--Actuarius, who lived about 1300, and whose book on
the urine laid the foundation of much of the popular uroscopy and
water-casting that had such a vogue in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries. His work on the subject passed through a dozen Latin
editions, but is best studied in Ideler's "Physici et medici Graeci
minores" (Berlin, 1841).
(9) It has been reproduced by Seatone de Vries, Leyden, 1905,
Codices graeci et latini photographice depicti, Vol. X.
The Byzantine stream of Greek medicine had dwindled to a very tiny rill
when the fall of Constantinople (1453) dispersed to the West many Greek
scholars and many precious manuscripts.
ARABIAN MEDICINE
THE third and by far the strongest branch of the Greek river reached the
West after a remarkable and meandering course. The map before you shows
the distribution of the Graeco-Roman Christian world at the beginning of
the seventh century. You will notice that Christianity had extended
far eastwards, almost to China.
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