The Canon of Medicine
The Canon of Medicine (Arabic القانون في الطب ( Qanun at- Tibb Al- Qanun fi'l or - Tibb ); Latin Canon medicinae ) is the best known medical works of Avicenna († 1037 ). It is divided into five main sections and combines Greek, Roman and Persian medical traditions.
Content
The Canon of Medicine is strictly divided. The five books ( Libri ) are in substance units ( Doctrinae ) subunits ( Fen ), chapter ( capitula ) and summaries ( summae ) divided.
The first book contains a definition of medicine as a science, it is distinguished in theory and practice. The causes of health and disease Avicenna leads to material, causing, shaping and relevant causes. This will help to examine the human body in order to take him from illness back to health. Doctors have this five tools: nutrition therapy, fresh air, a balance of exercise and rest, as well as a final treatment by drugs or by surgery. The following representations to the elements and the cosmos, and, in great detail, the theory of humors. Here Avicenna first systematized the teachings of Galen of Pergamum. As a disease concept they had partly to the 19th Century stock, as they were replaced by the cellular pathology (Rudolf Virchow ) and medical microbiology (Robert Koch).
The second book contains a pharmacopoeia ( materia medica ). At the beginning of Avicenna goes to the primary qualities (hot, cold, wet, dry), and explains how the mixture of various individual drugs influences their effectiveness. Then he puts on seven rules for experimentation:
In alphabetical form single drug now be treated in 758 chapters. They are systematically organized by keywords. Avicenna describes here, inter alia, Bolus armenus, the Armenian Tonheilerde (Chapter 423). He writes to her blustillende effect, it should be useful in boils and especially help with wounds. In addition, it should be easy to use effective in catarrh and headaches, as well as ulcers of the respiratory tract and the digestive tract, as well as fever. From the second half of the 11th century, this knowledge can also be demonstrated in Europe, including in Liber graduum by Constantine Africanicus († 1087) and Circa instans ( mid 12th century ). Other, previously unknown drugs in Europe so found their way into medicine in the West.
The third book is the anatomy of human organs and its disorders dedicated ( pathology and therapy). It starts with the anatomy of the brain and then treated corresponding diseases such as epilepsy or stroke. At the end are the excretory organs and their diseases. The extremities (arms and legs ) are missing. They belonged to the area of surgery. Avicenna thus treated here exclusively internal medicine.
In the fourth book the diseases are listed which spread throughout the body (surgery and systemic diseases ). It starts with fevers, purulent ulcers treated ( Apostemata ), nervous disorders, dislocations, fractures, injuries from animals ( animal bites, insect bites ), skin diseases and cosmetics.
The fifth book is concerned with the production of about 650 remedies of several components ( Antidotarium ). It contains some very complex drugs, including various Theriak preparations and Confekte, Elektuarien ( leakage means ), medicinal oils, syrup preparations, pills and ointments. The conclusion is a collection of shorter formulations against certain ailments.
Aftereffect
The canon was not only in the Islamic world, but from the 13th century throughout Europe become the standard of medical education. Around 1170 a group translated by Gerhard of Cremona in Toledo him into Latin. This version was, inter alia, used in the school of Salerno. A Hebrew translation followed 1279th It was printed in 1491 in Naples by the Gersoniden. The Latin original text was printed in 1507 in Venice for the first time. A facsimile of this edition appeared in 1964 in Hildesheim. In Basel, another version was printed in 1556, which was published in 1976 in Tehran as a facsimile. 1593 The Arabic text was first printed in Rome. However, in the 16th century, the influence of the canon was already on the wane. The humanists attracted prefer Greek and Roman authors approach as Avicenna. In Padua, the canon was still used in the early 18th century for teaching.
But even Otto Brunfels († 1534) and Leonhart Fuchs ( † 1566) criticized the work of Avicenna was not yet completely understood. To some extent this is true even today. The canon is still subject of worldwide research. A complete German translation does not exist today.
Editions and translations
- Liber canonis. Venice 1507, reprint Olms, Hildesheim 1964
- Liber Canonis, De medicinis cordialibus et Cantica. Basel 1556 reprint: Tehran 1976 ( the first printed in 1544 in Venice, second edition revised by Andrea Alpago version of the medieval translation of Gerard of Cremona )
- Avicenna Latinus. Louvain / Leiden 1968 ff ( critical edition of the Latin Avicenna )
- Avicenna 's Physics of the Healing. A Parallel English - Arabic Text in Two Volumes, Brigham Young University Islamic Translation Series, ed. and Übers by Jon McGinnis, 2 volumes, Brigham Young University Press, Provo UT, 2010.
- Part translation of Liber I Add: Johannes Gottfried Mayer, Konrad Göhl: Herbal Book of monastic medicine. Reprint Verlag, Leipzig, 2003. ISBN 3-8262-1130-8 pp. 74-124