Medicine · a Light

Al-Razi wrote down the cases where he was wrong

Abu Bakr al-Razi, born in Rayy near modern Tehran in the middle of the ninth century, ran hospitals there and in Baghdad. The book he is best known for, the Hawi, was not written by him for readers. After his death his students assembled it from his working notebooks, which is why it reads as it does: an authority quoted, then Greek and Indian opinion, then a mark meaning mine, followed by what he had seen at the bedside. His case notes record particular patients, the treatment given and whether it worked, including the times it did not. He also wrote a book of doubts about Galen, arguing that medicine advances only when a physician trusts a careful observation over a great name, and that Galen's own method demanded it.

Al-Razi · Rayy and Baghdad, died c. 925