A treatise on the small-pox and measles / by Abú Becr Mohammed ibn Zacaríyá ar-Rází (commonly called Rhazes). Translated from the original Arabic by William Alexander Greenhill.

  • Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā, 865?-925?
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the small-pox and measles / by Abú Becr Mohammed ibn Zacaríyá ar-Rází (commonly called Rhazes). Translated from the original Arabic by William Alexander Greenhill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Vll. he is able to devote to these studies. And if he be told in an¬ swer, that this plea would form a very good reason for not pub¬ lishing at all, but that it is no excuse whatever for sending forth books in an incorrect and slovenly manner, he fully allows that in most cases this is perfectly true ; but still he would venture to remind the objector, that professional works in any of the learned languages have almost always laboured under the peculiar disadvantage of being translated by persons who are imperfectly acquainted either with the subject matter, or with the language; and that, if we wait till we can find any one equally and sufficiently familiar with both, the publications in this branch of medical literature will be even more ^^few and far between^'’ than they have been hitherto.* Any faults either of omission or commission that shall be pointed out to the Translator will be gratefully acknowledged, and in any similar work which he may hereafter be allowed to under¬ take, he hopes to profit by the experience he has gained in this. Oxford; July 22, 1847. * “ If any one/’ says Ockley, in the Introduction to his History of the Saracens, “ if any one should pertly ask me, ‘ Why then do you trouble the world with things that you are not able to bring to perfection ?’ let them take this answer of one of our famous Arabian authors (Ahulfeda, Praef. ad Geography; ‘ What cannot totally he known, ought not to he totally neglected; for the knowledge of a part is better than the ignorance of the whole.’ ”