Originally, a hospital was any building appropriated for the reception of any class of persons who were unable to supply their own wants, and were more or less dependent upon public help to have those wants supplied. Hence hospitals were of various kinds, according to the nature of the wants they supplied and the class of persons for whom they are intended. A large number of hospitals were medical; others were for the reception of incurables; others for the aged and infirm; others for the education of children of people in reduced circumstances; others for the reception of the wounded in battle; and so on.
The first establishments of this nature are believed to belong to the 4th century AD. Their primary object was to afford a shelter to strangers and travellers, and it was only occasionally that the sick and infirm were admitted. One of the earliest hospitals of which we have any satisfactory information was that established by the emperor Valens at Caesarea about the end of the 4th century, and which was conducted on a very large scale.
The Arabs in Spain, at an early period of their occupation of that country, founded a magnificent hospital at Cordova, where physicians were trained, who did a vast deal to advance the study of medicine. The Arabs have also the dubious credit of having founded the first mental hospital (then known as a lunatic asylum) in Europe, which was erected in the city of Granada. The majority of hospitals everywhere are medical, often called infirmaries. These may be divided into general and special hospitals, the former class admitting cases of all kinds; the latter class admitting only patients suffering from some special trouble. Thus there were formerly lying-in hospitals, cancer, consumption, ophthalmic, lock (for venereal diseases), fever, and small-pox hospitals. There are also hospitals for children, and for persons suffering from incurable diseases. Such institutions formerly served a double purpose, inasmuch as they not only afford the best medical advice and treatment to the poor, who otherwise were unable to obtain it prior to the formation of the national health service, but also supplied the best means of giving instruction in medicine and surgery, as in them students had the opportunity of witnessing cases of nearly every variety of disease, and observing how they it was treated by the physicians and surgeons. For this reason a good infirmary or medical hospital was considered an indispensable adjunct to every school of medicine and surgery. Research Hospital
Cotton is the name given to the soft cellular hairs which encircle the seeds of plants of the genus Gossypium, natural order Malvaceae. The genus is indigenous to both the Old and the New World, and the plants are now cultivated all over the world within the limits of thirty degrees north and south of the equator. All the species are perennial shrubs, though in cultivation they are sometimes treated as if they were annuals. They have alternate stalked and lobed leaves, large yellow flowers, and a three or five celled capsule, which bursts open when ripe through the middle of the cell, liberating the numerous black seeds covered with the beautiful filamentous cotton.
The North American cotton is produced by Gossypium bartadense, and two well-marked varieties are cultivated, the long-staple cotton, which has a fine soft silky fibre, about five centimetres long, and the short-staple cotton, which has a fibre little over three centimetres long adhering closely to the seed. The long-staple variety known as Sea Island cotton holds the first place in the market. It is grown in some of the southern states of America, especially on islands bordering the coast.
The cotton grown in South America is obtained from Gossypium peruvianum, called also kidney cotton. The indigenous Indian species is Gossypium herbaceum, which yields a short-stapled cotton. It is grown throughout the Mediterranean region as well as in Asia.
The mode of cultivation is traditionally as follows: The seeds are sown in the spring in drills of about a metre in width, the plant appearing above ground in about eight days afterwards. The rows of young plants are then carefully weeded and hoed, a process which requires to be repeated at two or three subsequent periods. No hoeing takes place after the flowering has commenced, from which a period of seventy days generally elapses until the ripening of the seed. To prevent the lustre of the cotton wool from being tarnished, the pods must not remain ungathered longer than eight days after coming to maturity. The cotton wool is collected by picking with the fingers the flakes from the pods, and then spreading out to dry, an operation which requires to be thoroughly performed. The cotton now comes to be separated from the seeds, a process formerly effected by manual labour, but which since the late 19th century is generally accomplished by machinery. After being cleansed from the seeds, the cotton wool is formed into bales, and is now ready for delivery to the manufacturer.
Cotton has been cultivated in India and the adjacent islands from time immemorial. It was known in Egypt in the 6th century before the Christian era, but was then probably imported from India. It was not until a comparatively late period that the nations of the West became acquainted with this useful commodity, and even then it appears only to have been used as an article of the greatest luxury. The introduction of the cotton-shrub into Europe dates from the 9th century, and was first effected by the Spanish Moors, who planted it in the plains of Valencia. Cotton manufactories were shortly afterwards established at Cordova, Granada, and Seville; and by the 14th century the cotton stuffs manufactured in Granada had come to be regarded as superior in quality to those of Syria. About the 14th century cotton thread began to be imported into England.
In China the cotton-shrub was known at a very early period, but cotton does not appear to have been turned to any account as an article of manufacture until the 6th century of the Christian era, nor was it extensively used for that purpose until nearly the middle of the 14th century. In the New World the manufacture of cotton cloth appears to have been well understood by the Mexicans and Peruvians long before the advent of Europeans. It was planted by the English colonists of Virginia in 1621, but only as an experiment, and the amount produced was long very small. About 1780-1790 the British West Indies supplied Britain with most of its raw cotton, other sources being Asia Minor and the Levant, Brazil, and the East Indies. The United States then began to export cotton in large quantities, and soon outdistanced all other countries, though much cotton is also exported from India and Egypt. Research Cotton
Abu-Abdallah Mohammed Edrisi was an Arabian geographer. He was born about 1100 and died about 1180. A descendant of the ancient princely family of the Edrisites, he studied at the Moorish University of Cordova, after which he travelled through various countries. At the request of King Roger II of Sicily he constructed a globe with a map of the earth, which represented all the geographical knowledge of the age. He accompanied this with a descriptive treatise completed about 1150, and still extant in the 19th century. Research Abu-Abdallah Edrisi
Averroes was an Arabian philosopher. He was born probably between 1120 and 1149 at Cordova, in Spain and died sometime betrween 1198 and 1225. His ability procured him the succession to his father's office of chief magistrate, and the King of Morocco appointed him at the same time cadi in the province of Mauretania. Accused of being an infidel, he was, however, deprived of his offices, and banished to Spain; but, being persecuted there also, he fled to Fez, where he was condemned to recant and undergo public penance. Upon this he went back to his own country, where the Caliph Almansur finally restored him to his dignities. Averroes regarded Aristotle as the greatest of all philosophers, and devoted himself so largely to the exposition of his works as to be called among the Arabians The Interpreter. He wrote a compendium of medicine, and treatises in theology, philosophy, jurisprudence, etc. His commentaries upon Aristotle appeared before 1250 in a Latin translation attributed to Michael Scott and others. Research Averroes
Caliph, or calif or khalif (vicegerent) is the name assumed by the successors of Mohammed in the government of the faithful and in the high-priesthood. Caliphate is therefore the name given to the empire of these princes which the Arabs founded in Asia, and enlarged, within a few centuries, to a dominion exceeding even the Roman empire in extent. The appellation of caliph has long ago been swallowed up in Shah, Sultan, Emir, and other titles peculiar to the East.
Mohammed having died without naming his successor, three rival parties appeared immediately after his death. The first was headed by Omar, a kinsman of the prophet, who demanded the election of Abu Bekr, Mohammed's father-in-law. The second party was headed by Ali, the husband of Fatima, the prophet's daughter, who declared for himself. The third party consisted of people of Medina, who demanded the election of one of themselves. Abu Bekr was chosen in 632, and prosecuting the conquest of Syria, he defeated the Byzantine emperor Heraclius and took Damascus. His successor, Omar, completed the conquest of Syria, took Jerusalem, subjugated Egypt, and defeated the Persians. He is said to have erected over 1500 mosques. He was succeeded by Othman, or Osman, who completed the conquest of Persia and other Eastern countries, extended his dominion in Africa, and took Cyprus and Rhodes. Othman was succeeded by Ali, who is regarded as the first legitimate possessor of the dignity by a numerous sect of Mohammedans, which gives him and his son, Hassan, almost equal honour with the prophet. During his reign a great schism divided the Mohammedans into two sects called the Sunnites and the Shiites, the former acknowledging the authority of all the caliphs, the latter acknowledging only Ali and his descendants.
Ali was murdered in 660, and his son Hassan in 661, when Moawiyah, the founder of the dynasty of the Ommiyades, became caliph, and transferred his capital from Medina to Damascus. His army continued the conquest of Northern Africa, and twice unsuccessfully attacked Constantinople (Istanbul). Carthage was taken in 698, after which the Mohammedans encountered no serious opposition in Northern Africa.
From the union of the Arabic and Berber races of Africa sprung the Moors of Saracenic history. The conquest of Spain immediately followed, Tarik, the lieutenant of the Saracen general, Musa, having totally defeated the King of the Goths. The caliphate now extended from the Oxus and Indus to the Atlantic. In 732 a great host of Islamic soldiers crossed the Pyrenees and invaded France, but were totally defeated at Tours by Charles Martel. In 755 the Mohammedan dominion split up into the Eastern and Western Caliphates, the western caliph having Spain, with his capital at Cordova; and the eastern including Northern Africa, with the capital at Bagdad. The former was ruled by a series of Ommiyade caliphs; the latter by the dynasty of the Abbasides.
The most celebrated of the Abbaside caliphs of Bagdad was Haroun al Rashid (Aaron the Just), 786-808, under whom learning, science, and art were in a flourishing state. Subsequently the Islamic kingdom lost province after province, and the temporal authority of the caliph of Bagdad was destroyed. Numerous independent dynasties were set up, the most important of which was that of the Fatimites, founded by an African Saracen who claimed descent from Fatima the daughter of the prophet.
This dynasty conquered Sicily and several parts of Italy, Egypt, and Palestine. It came to an end in 1171. In 1031 the Western Caliphate ceased, and the Saracenic dominions in Spain was broken up into several small states. The most brilliant period of the Western Caliphate was in the 9th and 10th centuries, when literature, science, and art were in more flourishing condition than anywhere else in Europe. The Eastern Caliphate lingered on until 1258, when Bagdad was taken and sacked by the Mongols. Research Caliph
Charles VIII was king of France. He was born in 1470 and died in 1498. He succeeded his father, Louis XI in 1483. In 1491 he married Anne, the heiress of Brittany, and thereby annexed that important duchy to the French crown. The chief event in the reign of Charles VIII is his expedition into Italy, and rapid conquest of the kingdom of Naples, a conquest as rapidly lost when a few months later Gonsalvo de Cordova re-annexed it to Spain. Charles VIII was meditating a renewed descent into Italy when he died in 1498. Research Charles VIII
Garcilaso de la Vega (properly Garcias Laso de la Vega) was a Spanish poet, He was born in 1600 0r 1503 at Toledo and died in 1536. He went in his youth to the Spanish court, and in 1529 distinguished himself in the Spanish corps serving against the Turks in Austria. An intrigue with a lady of the court led to his imprisonment on an island in the Danube, where several of his poems were composed. In 1529 he was engaged in the expedition against Soliman, and in 1535 in that against Tunis. He was made commander of thirty companies of infantry in 1536, and accompanied the imperial army against Marseilles, but was mortally wounded in attempting to scale a tower near Frejus. He died at Nice in that year, and was buried at Toledo. His name is associated with that of his contemporary Boscan in the impetus given to Spanish literature by the imitation of the Italian poetic style as exemplified in Petrarch, Ariosto, and Sannazaro. His works, which consist of eclogues, epistles, odes, songs, sonnets, etc, are graceful and musical.
Garcilaso de la Vega; or Garcias Laso de la Vega was a Peruvian historian. The son of Garcilaso de la Vega, one of the conquerors of Peru, and a princess of the race of the Incas, he was born in 1530 or 1540 at Cuzco, Peru and died in 1616 or 1620. Having fallen under the groundless suspicion of the Spanish government he was sent home in 1560. His great work on the history of Peru is in two parts: the first entitled Los Comentarios Reales que tratan delOrigen de los Incas, etc (published in Lisbon in 1609); the second, the Historia general delPeru (published in Cordova in 1616). He wrote also Historia de la Florida (published in Lisbon in 1609). Research Garcilaso de la Vega
Hernandez Y Aguilar Gonsalvo de Cordova called the great captain (el gran capitan),was a Spanish soldier. He was born in 1453 at at Montilla, near Cordova and died in 1515 at Granada. He distinguished himself in the Portuguese War which began in 1475, and in the great war with the Moors, which ended with the conquest of Granada in 1492. In 1495 he was sent to assist Ferdinand II, king of Naples, against the French, who occupied the whole of that kingdom. In less than a year Gonsalvo de Cordova drove the French over the Neapolitan frontiers, and returned to Spain, where he was engaged in subjecting the Moors in the Alpujarras, when Louis XII of France renewed the war against Naples. Gonsalvo de Cordova again took the field, and by the victory near Seminara in 1502 obtained possession of both Calabrias. In 1503 he gained a still more important victory near Cerignola, in consequence of which Abruzzo and Apulia submitted, and Gonsalvo de Cordova marched into Naples. He then sat down before Gaeta. As the siege was protracted, he gave up the command to Don Pedro Navarro, and advanced to meet the enemy. He defeated the Marquis of Mantua; and on the Garigliano, with 8000 men, obtained a complete victory over 30,000 French, the consequence of which was the fall of Gaeta. The possession of Naples was now secured. He was viceroy in Italy until 1507, when, through the jealousy of the king and the calumnies of the courtiers, he was deprived of his office, and retired to Granada, where he died. Research Gonsalvo De Cordova
Luis Gongora y Argote was a Spanish poet. He was born in 1561 at Cordova and died there in 1627. He was educated for the church, and was made chaplain to the king, and a prebendary in the cathedral of Cordova. His works consist chiefly of lyrical poems, in which he excelled. He introduced a new poetic phraseology called the estilo culto, and founded a school of writers, the Gongoristas, who carried this depraved style to an absurd length. Research Luis Gongora y Argote
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Hospital
