Paul of Aegina orPaulus Aegineta (Greek:Παῦλος Αἰγινήτης;Aegina,c. 625 – c. 690) was a 7th-centuryByzantine Greekphysician best known for writing themedical encyclopediaMedical Compendium in Seven Books. He is considered the “Father of Early Medical Writing”.[1] For many years in theByzantine Empire, his works contained the sum of all available medical knowledge and was unrivaled in its accuracy and completeness.[2]
Nothing is known about his life, except that he was born in the island ofAegina, and that he travelled a good deal, visiting, among other places, Alexandria.[3] He is sometimes calledIatrosophistes andPeriodeutes, a word which probably means a physician who travelled from place to place in the exercise of his profession. The exact time when he lived is not known; but, as he quotesAlexander of Tralles,[4] and is himself quoted byYahya ibn Sarafyun (Serapion the Elder),[5] it is probable thatAbu-al-Faraj is correct in placing him in the latter half of the 7th century.[6]
TheSuda says he wrote several medical works, of which the principal one is still extant, with no exact title, but is commonly calledMedical Compendium in Seven Books (Greek:Ἐπιτομῆς Ἰατρικῆς βιβλία ἑπτά,Epitomes iatrikes biblia hepta).[7] This work is chiefly a compilation from earlier writers;[8] indeed its Greek title proclaims that it is anepitome of medicine, "epitomes iatrikes."
William Alexander Greenhill wrote that his reputation in the Islamic world seems to have been very great, and it is said that he was especially consulted by midwives, whence he received the name ofAl-kawabeli or "the Accoucheur."[9] He is said by the Arabic writers to have written a work, "De Mulierum Morbis," and another, "De Puerulorum Vivendi Ratione atque Curatione." His great work was translated into Arabic byHunayn ibn Ishaq.[9]
The sixth book onsurgery in particular was referenced inEurope and theArab world throughout theMiddle Ages,[10] and is of special interest forsurgical history. The whole work in the original Greek was published inVenice in 1528, and another edition appeared inBasel in 1538. SeveralLatin translations were published.[11] Its first full translation intoEnglish, was byFrancis Adams in 1834.[12]
In this work he describes the operation to fix a hernia similar to modern techniques writing, "After making the incision to the extent of three fingers' breadth transversely across the tumor to the groin, and removing the membranes and fat, and the peritoneum being exposed in the middle where it is raised up to a point, let the knob of the probe be applied by which the intestines will be pressed deep down. The prominence, then, of the peritoneum, formed on each side of the knob of the probe, are to be joined together by sutures, and then we extract the probe, neither cutting the peritoneum nor removing the testicle, nor anything else, but curing it with applications used for fresh wounds."[13]
In 1753, botanistCarl Linnaeus publishedAeginetia, which is a genus offlowering plants belonging to the familyOrobanchaceae and native mostly to tropical Asia. It was named in Paul of Aegina's honour.[14]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aegineta, Paulus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 254.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870)."Paulus Aegineta".Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. pp. 146, 152, 153.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link))