BOOK REVIEWS—ISIS, 94 : 4 (2003) 709 pocratic treatises. Rather than removing religion from disease etiology, On the Sacred Disease embraces it—and, I would add, not just for the sake of attracting clientele. After all, the Hip- pocratics associated themselves closely with the divine, among other ways, in claiming descent from the god Asklepios. Laskaris’s label “secu- lar healers” is therefore misleading. Neverthe- less, while the art may be long, Laskaris’s book is succinct and engaging, well documented, and accessible to a broad audience. BRONWEN WICKKISER Galen. On the Properties of Foodstuffs (De ali- mentorum facultatibus). Introduction, transla- tion, and commentary by Owen Powell. Fore- word by John Wilkins. xxvi206 pp., app., bibl., index. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. $55 (cloth). Galen has a bad reputation because his teaching was followed slavishly for so many centuries af- ter his death, but he can hardly be blamed for that. In his life in the second century C.E. he was, for a time, the personal physician in Rome to the emperor Marcus Aurelius and highly regarded for his voluminous writings. Owen Powell has translated the present volume into very clear, simple English and modestly discusses the pos- sible alternatives to his translations of key words and phrases. There is something satisfying in Galen’s style, and some of his remarks resonate with a modern reader so that one forgets how long ago the text was written. Thus: “If other physicians’ writings about food were in agree- ment about everything (as is the case with people who write about geometry and arithmetic), there would be no need for me to be doing so.” In discussing the properties of different types of bread, he points to those with more bran being laxative, notes that loaves baked in too hot an oven can have a hard crust but still be uncooked in the middle, and remarks that poppy seeds sprinkled on a loaf make a pleasant seasoning. But then, after commenting that beans can cause flatulence except when roasted, he adds that they are a favorite food of gladiators, though they tend to make their flesh rather flabby. Galen also relates his recommendations to the concept of the four humors and the use of foods to correct an individual’s deviation from the ideal balance that maintains health. Thus honey is beneficial for those who are “moist and cold” but quite unsuited for the “dry and warm.” Yet individuals’ dispositions can change according to their age, the season of the year, and their geographical position. Furthermore, a single food can contain opposing tendencies, the liquid part promoting the emptying of the stomach and the solid part being slow to pass and astringent. The properties of cabbage, for example, are changed if it is first boiled and the liquor dis- carded. Galen was certainly constructing an ar- gument that only the most skilled physician could provide reliable advice as to how someone should eat so as to remain in good health. When he turns to animal products we again see some careful observation—for example, that milk dif- fers according to species (that from cows being richer and fatter than that from mares) and also that it contains three components, whey, cheese, and butter, which is similar in nature to olive oil. Meat is said to produce the best blood; pork is the ideal and similar to human flesh, according to those who have eaten the latter. Beef produces blood that is inappropriately thick and is particu- larly unsuitable for those whose nature tends to an excess of black bile. Some physicians, de- ceived by the softness of brains, administer them to their patients, when in fact they produce “mu- cus and thick humor.” It is certainly interesting to read an intelligent man’s struggles to fit his observations into a theoretical scheme based on limited knowledge, and we have to wonder in turn how our present ideas will look to future generations. KENNETH J. CARPENTER  Middle Ages and Renaissance Suhayl: Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation. Vol- ume 1. 367 pp., figs., tables. Barcelona: Univer- sidad de Barcelona, 2000. Suhayl is a new journal that, as its subtitle clearly states, treats the history of the exact and natural sciences and is aimed at specialists in these fields. The preface to this first volume justifies the launching of the new enterprise as necessi- tated—or at least made highly desirable—by the growing number of scholars pursuing this kind of research. This stance reflects the history of those editing the journal: the research group around Juan Vernet and Julio Samso ´ at Barce- lona University has been highly productive and successful in uncovering the fate of astronomy on the Iberian Peninsula during the Muslim pe- riod, relations with the Muslim East, and con- nections with Northern Africa. The focus of the group’s research was and is on editing, translat- ing, and commenting on difficult texts and, less prominently, instruments. The first volume of Suhayl is consistent with