Medical Epitome
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Seven books condense Greek medicine into a working handbook whose surgical volume, covering lithotomy, trepanation, tracheotomy and the extraction of missiles, was quoted for a thousand years.
- surgery described as procedure with instruments, step by step
- compilation acknowledged as compilation rather than presented as new
- the practical channel by which Greek medicine reached Arabic
- battlefield and obstetric practice recorded alongside theory
Paul compiled rather than innovated, and says so, but his selection and arrangement made the work the practical bridge between Greek and Arabic medicine. The sixth book on surgery is the most substantial to survive from antiquity, describing procedures step by step with the instruments required, including operations for bladder stone, hernia, cataract, amputation and the treatment of battlefield wounds. Arabic translators drew on it heavily and al-Zahrawi's surgical treatise depends on it directly.
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