Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine: 11th century rules for assessing the effects of drugs

In his Al Hammadi Lecture at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, John Urquhart,1 professor of biopharmaceutical sciences at the University of California at San Francisco, contrasted Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine (c. 1012) with Osler's Principles and Practice of Medicine.2 Urquhart asked himself which of the two books he would want if he was marooned and in need of a guide for practical medicine. He opted for Ibn Sina's Canon because the book presents an integrated view of surgery and medicine. Ibn Sina tells his readers, for example, how to judge the margin of healthy tissue to remove with an amputation.a In contrast, Osler shunned intervention in his Principles and Practice of Medicine. The enduring respect in the 21st century for a book written a millennium earlier is testimony to Ibn Sina's achievement.