Page 91 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (2)

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NEGLECTED A KAMA Li

tu be careful not to admire the babies too much. The evil eye fasten*
itself on them and they get ill. All this makes it difficult for the
doctor.
Hut there is another puzzling matter in treating Arabs—there are
culd and hot diseases. Arab medicine was taken from the old (Ireek
doctors. We are made up of four elements—lMilegm, Blood, Sweat and
Uile. Lot me quote from an old Arab medical book:
Chapter 1. “Knowledge of the constitution or temperament and what !
Cod the Most High deposits in it of action. Know that this is the

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AN ARAB SHOP
must important of all the chapters because from the origin of nature
there is something from minerals and plants and life, the knowledge of i
ib composition and its destruction God knows. God the Most High
created hot nature and its roots from the action of the earth. Then
Coil created cold nature and its roots. The heat paired with the cold
and moisture paired with the dryness and they brought forth the four
elements. So man is compounded from these different unions. There
ire four mixtures—dry heat and its roots and they are born from lire
aiul have their seat in man's liver and gall bladder. 2. .This mixture is
of blood—damp heat and its kind and is born from the element air
and has its seat also in man’s liver. The third mixture is phlegm. It
is culd and moist and is born from the element water. The fourth mix­
ture is bile—it is cold and dry and its kind and is born of the element
earth and its place is in man’s spleen,”