There is a very interesting account of the Indian physicians at the court of Baghdad in a translation made from a MS. in the Rich collection in the British Museum.[715] The history is from the work of Ibn Abu Usaibiâh, who lived at the beginning of the thirteenth century of our era. Kankah the Indian was a great philosopher as well as a physician; he investigated the properties of medicines “and the composition of the heavenly bodies” (!). Sanjahal, another learned Indian, wrote on medicine and astrology. From the science of the stars he applied himself to the symptoms of diseases, on which he wrote a book in ten chapters. He gave the symptoms of four hundred and four diseases. He also wrote on _The Imagination of Diseases_. Shánák wrote on poisons and the veterinary art. Jawdar was a philosopher and a physician who wrote a book on nativities. Mankah the Indian was learned in the art of medicine, and “gentle in his method of treatment.” He lived in the days of Haroun-al-Raschid. Salih, son of Bolah the Indian, was “well skilled in treatment, and had power and influence in the promotion of science.” Kankah the Indian, says Prof. H. Wilson, was very celebrated in the history of Arabian astronomy. He says that it is certain that the astronomy and medicine of the Hindus were cultivated anteriorly to those of the Greeks, by the Arabs of the eighth century. “It is clear that the Charaka, the Susruta, the treatises called Nidán on diagnosis, and others on poisons, diseases of women, and therapeutics, all familiar to Hindu science, were translated and studied by the Arabs in the days of Haroun and Mansur, either from the originals, or translations made at a still earlier period into the language of Persia.”[716] We may conveniently mention here the famous Jew of Spain, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (died 1198), a native of Cordova, who was profoundly learned in mathematics, medicine, and other arts. He retired to Egypt, where he wrote books on medicine, which were much read. He advised his patients never to sleep in the daytime, and at night only on the side. He recommended them not to retire to rest till three to four hours after supper.[717] Medical etiquette was rather strict. “Operations performed by the hand, such as venesection, cauterization, and incision of arteries, are not becoming a physician of respectability and consideration. They are suitable for the physician’s assistants only. These servants of the physician should also do other operations, such as incision of the eyelids, removing the veins in the white of the eye, and the removal of cataract. For an honourable physician nothing further is becoming than to impart to the patient advice with reference to food and medicine. Far be it from him to practise any operation with the hand. So say we!”[718]