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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    (33.) If any pnstnles come out in the nostrils or in the mouth,, drop into the nose oil of violets^ white wax,, and gum tragacanth^ and into the mouth^ mucilage of fleawort seed. With respect to diet^ put into the patient^s drink troches of broad-leaved dock^ and let his food be parched barley meal with pomegranate water; and do not give him young birds to eat until the fever is entirely gone, the pustules dried up, and the scabs fallen off.^ (34.)^ At the beginning of the disease let the patient he fed on pot-herbs; and for the first week let his bowels he kept open with ^^Aqua Fructuum;^^^ and let him have for drink barley water as long as the acrimony continues. After the end of the first week take care not to give him anything that is laxative; for towards the end of this disease a diarrhoea some¬ times comes on, accompanied with ulceration of the intestines; and let his food be peeled lentiles boiled in pomegranate water.^ And do not put oil on the patient either in the beginning of the disease or towards the end, for in the beginning it hinders the eruption of the pustules, and towards the end it renders the ulcers corrupt.® (35.) Serapion^ says:—^^As soon as the symptoms ^ ’ of the Small-Pox appear, the patient must lose blood, either by the lancet, or, if his strength be much reduced, by 1 The Arabic MS. (jj. 91. 1. 17.) has nose, hut the Latin version has mouth, and so also above, § 22, and below, § 81. ^ See above, Bivis. § 10, and below, §35. 3 Here again the Arabic MS. differs from the Latin version in the order of the paragraphs. See below, § 80. The preparation of the “ Aqua Fructimm,’’ as given by Mesne, was as follows :— “ R Pruna quadraginta, Myxa, Zizypha, ana triginta, Tamarindorura uncias duas, Cassiae Fistulae uncias tres, Mannae unciam unain; Fiat ut diximus.” {i. e. Coque in libris tribus aquae ad lihram unam.) See Mesue, De Compos. Medicam. p. 155, ed. 1589. s See above, § 20. ® See below, § 42.