<p style="text-align: center">Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine</p>
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Avicenna, or commonly known as Ibn Sina, lived in a time were medicine had limited laws.  Medicine in the 11<sup>th</sup> century was almost hazardous to your health. Back then they thought that simple bad hygiene, odors, and a sinful soul were the causes of sickness. If you were stricken with a serious illness, good luck. You’re only real chance for survival against the bacteria that lingered underneath your feet, and in the air that you breathed, was to be Avicenna’s (or commonly known as Ibn Sina) best friend. He was not only an Iranian astronomer, chemist, psychologist, teacher, mathematician, and poet, but he was physician. A brilliant physician that wrote a book in 1025 called the Canon of Medicine which changed the field of medicine to what it is today, and we cannot leave it behind.

Avicenna was a brilliant mind. Rare to children of his time, and even to the children of now, he was highly enthusiastic about his studies, and engaged heavily in self-education. He read avidly and mastered Islamic law, medicine, and even metaphysics by the age of 17 (Ibn Sina (Avicenna): Historical Vignette: Historical Case). With his profound knowledge he was able to cure Shams al-Dawlah, the King of Hamadan, for severe colic, In Rayy he cured their king's melancholia (which was later documented in his book <em>State of the Human Soul</em>), and was able cure Nuh ibn Mansur, the King of Bukhhara, of an illness considered untreatable by well-known physicians (Hawkridge, Owen).

Even through all his triumphs he wasn’t truly thought of as head of the pack until he wrote Canon of Medicine. In this book he broke down all the knowledge he had accumulated throughout his studies about human illnesses and their cures into 5 books. Book one is the most complicated. It is the study of the four elements, four humors, symptoms, hygiene, causes of sickness, therapy, surgical treatments and inevitability of death –basically the framework for medical practice. Book two is the on the physical properties of drugs, and their qualities. Book three focuses on diseases starting with the brain, nerves, eyes, ears, and ending with pains in joints. The fourth book is the general pathologies such as fevers, wounds, fractures, and poisons. Finally, book five centers on compound drugs and their applications (Archives Avicenna Canon of Medicine).

Huge contributions for modern medicine were within these 5 sections of the Canon of Medicine. In it was the recognition that tuberculosis is contagious; diseases can be spread through water and soil; and a person’s emotional health influences their physical health. It was also the first to describe parts of the eye, heart valves, and that nerves were responsible for perceiving pain (The Islamic World to 1600).

After its publishing, it served as the medical authority throughout Europe for 600 years. When it was translated into Latin in the 12<sup>th</sup> century, it gained wide fame through the west (Fiero, Gloria K). Quickly becoming the predominant textbook used in European medical schools all the way until the 17<sup>th</sup> century, it is still used today in Islamic medical schools in Pakistan and India. No other medical book has remained so highly acclaimed for the amount of time that this one has, and it was even one of the first books to be produced on the invention of the printing press in Arabic in 1593 (The Islamic World to 1600).

There was another Canon of Medicine that was published by the Chinese called <em>Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon </em>that describes Chinese medicine and acupuncture, and is thought to be the most important ancient text in Chinese medicine. Unlike Avicenna’s, it is written by many different scholars and physicians instead of one mind, and has been translated into multiple versions that sometimes lose important sections.  Also, instead of representing its information like a typical text book, it is structured as a dialogue between the Yellow Emperor and one of his physicians. It is spectated that the reasoning for this is so anonymous authors could avoid attribution and blame. Despite all the flaws related to this Canon, it is still considered a fundamental doctrine for Chinese medicine (Huangdi Neijing).

Avicenna later died in 1037 of a disease he was ironically able to treat successfully; Severe colic. Him, along with his works, must not be forgotten. How can we move our lives and civilization forward if we leave behind the only thing that kept us free of death by illness? We cannot resort back to the primitive methods of removing sickness with leeches. Diseases exist and we NEED this book to combat it. We are taking it with us. End of discussion.

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CITATION

"Archives Avicenna Canon of Medicine." <em>The Institution of Engineering and Technology - The IET</em>. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. &lt;http://www.theiet.org/about/libarc/archives/featured/avicenna.cfm&gt;.

Fiero, Gloria K. "Chapter 10. The Islamic World: Religion and Culture Ca. 570–1300." <em>The Humanistic Tradition</em>. 6th ed. Vol. 1. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2011. B2.54+. Print.

Hawkridge, Owen. "Science Vignette: Ibn Sïnā (Avicenna)." <em>Quasar</em>. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. &lt;http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/edse456/apt/vignettes/ibnsina.htm&gt;.

"Huangdi Neijing." <em>Wikipedia.org</em>. Wikipedia. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. &lt;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huangdi_Neijing&gt;.

"Ibn Sina (Avicenna): Historical Vignette: Historical Case." <em>Medscape</em>. American Association of Neurological Surgeons, 2001. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. &lt;http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/405737_2&gt;.

"The Islamic World to 1600: The Arts, Learning, and Knowledge (Ibn Sina)." <em>Home | University of Calgary</em>. The Applied History Research Group, 1998. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. &lt;http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/learning/ibnsina.html&gt;.

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