In this he would have done far better to have studied some of his predecessors, such as Galen, Paul of Aegina, and Avicenna.

But instead of "cutting men to pieces," he taught that surgeons would gain more by devoting their time to searching for the universal panacea which would cure all diseases, surgical as well as medical.

In this we detect a taint of the popular belief in the philosopher's stone and the magic elixir of life, his belief in which have been stoutly denied by some of his followers.

He did admit, however, that one operation alone was perhaps permissible--lithotomy, or the "cutting for stone." His influence upon medicine rests undoubtedly upon his revolutionary attitude, rather than on any great or new discoveries made by him.

It is claimed by many that he brought prominently into use opium and mercury, and if this were indisputably proven his services to medicine could hardly be overestimated.