The other Arabians, although some of them treat fully of this subject, especially Avicenna and Rhases, yet give little additional information. Rhases speaks of applying a glass or a cupping instrument to draw off the blood after leeching. He gives a full account of the different kinds of leeches. Before applying them, some, he says, smear the part with blood and some with milk. When they are too long of falling off he directs us to sprinkle salt upon their mouths. He recommends them to be kept in a vessel containing water herbs. (Cont. xxviii.) When it is wished to abstract more blood after the leeches have fallen off, Albucasis directs us to foment the part with hot water, to rub it, and apply a cupping instrument to it. When, on the contrary, it is wished to stop the discharge, Avicenna recommends us to apply galls, lime, or other astringents, to the part. For this purpose Albucasis likewise directs us to apply a mass of beans deprived of their skins. SECT. XLII.—ON BURNING THE ARMPIT. In dislocation at the joint of the shoulder, it sometimes happens that the head of the arm falls out over and over again, either from the prevalence of too much humidity, or because the way is paved to it by its frequent occurrence. In this case then we have recourse to burning. Wherefore, the patient being laid on his back, or on the sound side, the skin at the inner part of the armpit, where the dislocation mostly takes place, is to be stretched between two fingers of the left hand, or with hooks, and burnt with heated cauteries, of a slender and oblong shape, until the cautery, being pushed through to the other side, occasion the formation of two eschars at one application. And if the distance between them is considerable, having passed the head of a specillum through them, we make another eschar in the middle by burning down until the cautery reach the specillum. And Hippocrates wishes two other eschars to be formed on each side of the middle one at the same distance as they, so as to form a quadrangular figure. We must not burn deeper than the skin, because nerves, glands, and other substances, which may give rise to inflammation and disturbance, lie below. The treatment may be conducted by means of leeks applied with pounded salts, and the rest of the treatment of eschars. Afterwards we may use the hand cautiously. * * * * * COMMENTARY. Hippocrates (as stated by our author) recommends this operation for preventing the recurrence of dislocation at the shoulder-joint: it is minutely described by him. (De Artic. xi.) Albucasis describes the operation, but it will be readily understood from our author’s account of it. (Chirurg. i. 27.) It is described in like manner by Haly Abbas. (Pract. ix. 73.) SECT. XLIII.—ON PRETERNATURAL FINGERS, AND ON PERSONS HAVING SIX FINGERS.