Measure in Arabic and Middle Age Medicine

Abstract

During the Xllith century to the qualitative knowledge is superimposed the concept of the importance of a quantitative evaluation of natural phenomena. The Arabic works on science, first translated in Latin by Adelard of Bath, and the recovery of classical culture into Western Europe are discussed by Grosseteste, R. Bacon and Ockham with a separation of religious truth from the scientific findings; Jean Buridan (Paris) applied this meaning to physics and Simone di Castello (Bologna) considered the necessity of the measure of elements, qualities and humours to explain and correct health and disease. So, the logica nova was acquired also by medicine, as demonstrated by the works of Anthony Ricart and by the direct quantitation made by Santorio Santorio (early XVIIth c,), who constructed appropriate instruments for measurement of medical parameters.