1. _Not but in any weather._) Morgagni observes, that in the
original, it should be read, _Non quod non omni tempore, omni
tempestatum genere_; so that the translation should run, _Not but in
any season, and in any weather_. What renders this correction more
probable is, that a few lines before, Celsus had said, _Quæ tempora
anni, quæ tempestatum genera_.--These two words, though omitted
by Juntas and Cæsar, and after them by Linden and Almeloveen, are
nevertheless extant in the MS. and the other editions he perused. Ep.
6. p. 142.
2. _To be most apprehended in the spring._) The words in the original
are, _Vere tamen maxime_, &c.--As there is no opposition
between this observation and any going before, if the reading be right,
there must be a chasm in the text.--But I suspect _tamen_ ought to be
_quam_, and have rendered it accordingly.
3. _Dropsical disorders._ _Aqua inter cutem._) This is a term used
by our author, to signify a slight species of the _leucophlegmatia_,
or the first appearances of a dropsy. See the beginning of the 21st
chapter of lib. iii.
4. _Braces a sound body._ _Spissat sanum corpus._) Literally, it
thickens, or compacts a sound body.--The interpretation here given is
confirmed by opposite effects of the south wind, a few lines after,
_Corpus efficit hebes_, _humidum_, _languidum_.
5. _If the temples be strait bound._) This happens, when there is no
perspiration from them.
6. _And pubes be full._) Linden and Almeloveen here have _plana_--But
I chose rather with Constantine to read _plena_; both because the
appearance is then exactly opposed to what follows in the IV. chapter,
as a bad symptom in those parts, and because it corresponds better with
Hippocrat. aphor. 35. sect. 2.
7. _At the end of a distemper._) Celsus takes this from Coac. Prænot.
601. which if he had translated literally, he would have said, instead
of _Sub fine morbi, ad crisim_; which shows his great care to avoid the
Greek terms of art, and render the knowledge of medicine as easy as
possible to his countrymen.
8. _Betwixt the fourth hour._) The Romans divided the day from
sun-rise to sun-set into twelve equal parts, or hours; the measure of
which therefore differed in proportion to the length of the day. The
sixth hour was our twelve; it is easy to reckon all the rest by their
distance from that middle point. When they mention hours as a general
measure of time, they mean equinoctial hours, as Plin. lib. xviii. cap.
25.
9. _Strigments_, _Strigmenta_.) I find the moderns differ about
the signification of this word; some taking it for the sordes
absterged from the skin at the baths or palestræ, other for abraded
fibres from the guts. It is agreed on all hands, that Celsus by this
word translates ξύσματα in Hippocrates, and so it is rendered by
Foesius.--Though ξύσμα will bear either of these interpretations, yet
it seems to favour the first, that not only Erotianus explains it
so in his lexicon to Hippocrates; but Celsus himself, in the sixth
book, c. 6. orders a composition to be brought to the consistence of
_strigmentum_.
10. _Many ways._) Instead of _pluribus modis_, most editions have
_pluribus morbis_. However, either of them will agree with what goes
before and follows.
11. _And if there is not a discharge of blood from the nose, &c._)
In Almeloveen and Linden the reading is thus, _Ac si inter ipsa initia
sanguis è naribus non fluit, circa aures erumpit_.--Morgagni[IP] here
observes, that this does not agree with the prænotion, no. 6. whence
this whole context is taken; and also that these words, _Sanguis è
naribus_, are not in the margin, nor in any of his editions; and that
Constantine and Ronsseus have in the margin _Initia aut viscera_, while
all of them write in the text _Ipsa ulcera_, some _Non fluit_, others
_Non fuit_; which the most ancient editions and the MS. have, and
besides _viscera_.--So that, upon the whole, he would incline to read
_Ac si inter ipsa viscera non fit, circa aures erumpit_, viz. And if it
is not formed amongst the viscera, it breaks out about the ears.
[IP] Ep. 7. p. 172.
12. _If it grow less._) I have chosen to follow the older reading,
which omits the negative particle, because it seems plain, that our
author is here speaking not of the body, but the belly, in this and
the two preceding articles; the sense determines itself.--If the
belly yields to purging medicines or spontaneously discharges soft
and figured excrements, and the effect of one or both appears in the
diminution of its bulk.
13. _Is hysteric._) The original is, _Quæ locis laborat_; which
by itself is pretty obscure, but the sense here given appears just,
from comparing it with aphorism 35. sect. 5: Γυναικὶ ὑπὸ ὑστερικω̃ν
ἐνοχλουμένη, ἢ δυστοκούση, πταρμὸς ἐπιγινόμενος ἀγαθόν.--_Mulieri uteri
strangulatu vexatæ, aut difficultate partus laboranti, sternutatio
succedens bono est._
14. _Of that kind that breaks outward._) The text in this place
in Almeloveen and Linden appears to be corrupt, who read, _At ex
suppurationibus hæ pessimæ sunt, quæ intus tendunt, sic ut exteriorem
quoque cutem decolorent: ex his deinde, quæ in exteriorem partem
prorumpit; tum quæ maximæ, quæque planissimæ sunt_. I own I could make
no sense of it, that I thought tolerable. The plural number is used
both in the first and last members of the period; and the nature of
the distributor seems to require the same number to be used here. For
this reason I have made but two members, and read the latter thus: _Ex
his deinde quæ in exteriorem partem prorumpunt, quæ maximæ, quæque
planissimæ sunt._ By which small alteration we have an observation
worthy of our author, and consonant to the parallel place in Hippocrat.
Coac. Prænot. no. 281. where Foesius quotes this passage as here
proposed.
15. _In the middle of the body._) An ascites.
16. _Puffed up as it were by fermentation, &c._) Foesius observes
in a note upon lib. ii. prædictor. 31. from whence this context is
closely copied, that ἀπόζυμος γαστὴρ, _fermentatus venter_, is an
unusual kind of expression, which makes him suspect the reading should
be ὑποξήρους, which he thinks is supported by Galen in his Exegesis,
who says that ὑποξήρους περὶ γαστέρων signifies ταπεινοτέρας _aut_
προεσταλμένας, that is _dried up_, _extenuated_, _contracted_. Foesius
thinks too, that Celsus by mistake has read λιπαράς for ῥυπαρὰς, _fat_
for _sordid_. But as this is only conjecture, it is much more natural
to suppose, that λιπαρὰς was the true reading, and that ῥυπαρὰς had
crept in since the time of Celsus.
17. _Therefore an intermission_, &c.) In Almeloveen the reading is
thus, _Expectanda ergo intermissio est: si non decedit, cum crescere
desiit: si neque remissio speratur, tunc quoque_, &c.--[IQ] Morgagni
observed this reading to be suspicious, as it was not probable our
author would have mentioned its stop before its remission; and upon
examining his editions, he found this reading in them all, _Expectanda
ergo remissio est_. _Si non decrescit; sed crescere desiit, tunc
quoque_, &c. i. e. therefore a remission is to be waited for. If it
does not remit, but has ceased to increase, in that case the only, &c.
[IQ] Ep. 5. p. 139.
18. _Already hurt._) I have here rejected the word _quam_ upon the
authority of the marginal reading; because it appears to me to spoil
the sense, which without it is very proper.
19. _Penecillum._) [IR] Fabricius ab Aquapendente makes _penecillum_
a tent made of scraped lint. I think he is right as to its form
and materials; but it often occurs in Celsus, where it is used as
a pledgit, and not introduced into any cavity, as in this place.
Notwithstanding, in other places, it exactly corresponds to a tent,
as lib. vii. cap. 4. when used to a fistula.--For this reason I have
chosen to retain the original word.
[IR] Lib. II. de Vulnerib. cap. 8.
20. _Scales of copper._) These are scales that fly off in hammering
red-hot copper. They were washed and rubbed in a mortar, to free them
from any adhering sordes, and when cleaned and dried, put by for use.
Dioscorid. lib. v. cap. 863.
Celsus added here, called by the Greeks λεπὶς χαλκου̃, which he had
literally translated by _squama æris_.
21. _Sea spurge_, _Lactuca marina_.) Our author elsewhere says, that
this herb by the Greeks is called tithymalus--of which Dioscorides
enumerates seven species, all similar in their virtues, amongst which
is the παράλιος or maritime kind here mentioned. Dioscorid. lib. iv.
cap. 747.
22. _Hydromel_ was made of two parts of water to one of honey.
Dioscorid. lib. v. cap. 791.
23. _Ptisan_ was made by steeping barley in water, till it swelled;
then drying it in the sun; afterwards beating it, till the husk came
off; then grinding it; the meal was boiled in water, dried in the sun,
and then set by. When used, it was boiled up again with water; and this
was what they called the _cremor_ or _succus ptisanæ_.
24. _A decoction of vervains._) What herbs our author means by
_vervains_, he shows in chapter 33d of this book.
25. _Concerning friction_, &c.) In the text, _De frictione et
gestatione adeo multa Asclepiades_, &c. which, though it be the reading
in most copies, must necessarily appear erroneous by considering what
follows; and therefore I have taken no notice of these words _et
gestatione_.
26. _Digestion._) See note at lib. i. p. 6.
27. _A prop is to be put under one foot_, &c.) In Linden and
Almeloveen the reading is, _At certe uni pedi lecti fulcimentum
subjiciendum est_.--But all the editions in the possession of
Morgagni[IS] and the MS. have _Funiculus subjiciendus est_. A cord is
to be put under one foot, &c. And in this way Mercurialis reads it,
when he quotes this passage de Art. Gymnast. lib. iii. cap. 12.
[IS] Ep. 5. p. 132.
28. _Clibanum_ was the name of a particular kind of oven among the
Romans. As it is here mentioned, beside the laconicum or hot-room at
the bath, he probably intends by it a stove placed in a common room so
as to heat it.
29. _Fever._) Our author here means, either an acute continued fever,
or the paroxysm of an intermitting one; as will appear by the following
paragraph.
30. _Bottles filled with hot oil_, _Utriculi_.) Their bottles were
made of leather. The nearest to this kind of practice among the moderns
are the tin cases made in different shapes, and adapted to the abdomen,
breast, or joints, filled with hot water.
31. Lentils.
32. _The Cetus._) Cetus is generally translated _whale_ in English;
but it cannot be understood of what we call a whale, but is a general
name for all the larger fishes that are viviparous.
33. _Particular kind of bread_, _Opus pistorium_.) The English reader
will perceive, by the ingredients mentioned, that there is no such
bread in modern use, and consequently no proper name for it. Pliny
mentions the same composition. lib. xviii. cap. 11.
34. _Phœnicopter._) This signifies a bird with purple wings; its
tongue was of a delicious taste. Plin. lib. x. cap. 48.
35. _Snails._) Cochlea, without distinction, is used to signify a
snail and periwinkle, which last is only the marine snail. The Romans
were at prodigious expence and trouble, to feed their snails to an
almost incredible size.
36. _Conchylia_, according to Pliny, in different places, a delicate
shell-fish, the greatest plenty of which came from the river Indus, of
the same nature and properties with the purple fish.
37. _Siligo_ was a kind of wheat, very delicious to the taste,
extremely white, growing best in moist ground. Plin. lib. xviii. cap.
8.--The same author says it never grows so ripe as the other kinds; for
when it is suffered to stand too long, it drops its grains, Id. ibid.
cap. 10. Columella says that all wheat in a watery soil, after the
third sowing, turns into siligo. Lib. ii. cap. 9.
38. _Than the mealy_, _Fragilia_.) Which translation appears to be
just, from its opposition to _succosa_.
39. _Thrush_, _Turdus_.) The Romans included several birds under this
name.
40. _Salsamenta_, which are salted and dried. Vide note at chap. 2.
book i.
41. _Lacertus et aurata._) I have chosen rather to retain the Latin
appellations of these fish, and several more, than to follow the
conjectures of the moderns, where they are not agreed. _Aurata_ is
taken for the _gilt-head_, _corvus_, _a cabot_, _oculata_, _eye-fish_,
resembling a lizard, _plani_, _flat_ _fish_, or _the turbot kind,
lupus_ some will have _the pike_, others _sturgeon_. _Mullus_,
_barbett_, or _mullet_.--See Pliny who describes them.
42. _Four footed animal._) I have here rejected the particle _vel_,
according to the older reading; because our author would never say, _A
quadruped or any animal that is sucking_, &c. since no other sucking
animals are used for food but quadrupeds.
43. _Soft or sorbile._) The first by Dioscorides is called ἀπαλὸν,
and the second ῥοφητὸν. Humelbergius in his notes upon Apicius de re
Coquinar. takes the first to be eggs boiled soft without their shell,
by us called poached eggs.
44. _Alica_ is reckoned among the vernal seeds. It is a species of
wheat which degenerates after being sown in soils not proper for it,
as in Africa, where it has the name of zea. It is ground to meal, and
the husks taken from it, and then chalk is added to it, which renders
it exceedingly white and soft. The best chalk for this purpose is found
between Puteoli and Naples. A common way of counterfeiting it is to
take the largest and whitest grains of wheat, and after parboiling
these, and drying them in the sun, to sprinkle them, and after drying
a second time, to grind them. Plin. lib. xviii. cap. 7. and 11. The
same author says, this is an invention of the Romans, and not very old,
unknown to the Greeks, otherwise they would not have bestowed so many
encomiums upon their ptisan; because it was not mentioned by any of the
followers of Asclepiades, he believed it was not used in the time of
Pompey the Great. Id. lib. xxii. cap. 25.
45. _Pulse._) Pulticula is a diminutive of puls, which was a very
ancient kind of food, made of meal, water, honey, or with cheese and
eggs boiled, which, according to Pliny, the Romans used for many years,
before they knew bread.
46. _Passum._) Columella’s method of making passum (from Mago) is
this--Gather the early grapes thoroughly ripe, and throw away what
stones are either dry or rotten. Expose them to the sun in the daytime,
and cover them at night from the dew. When they are dried, take out the
stones--then put them into a cask, and add as much of the best must
as to cover them; when the grapes are macerated and filled, on the
sixth day take them out and press them, and thus draw off the passum.
Columell. lib. xii. cap. 39. This resembles nothing in modern use so
much as raisin wine. Other inferior kinds were also prepared, for which
see Columella in the same chapter, and Pliny, lib. xiv. cap. 9.
47. _Starch_, _amylum_, so called from its being prepared without a
mill. Though the process among the ancients differed a little from the
present, yet the effect of the operation is the same.--See Dioscorid.
lib. ii. cap. 311.
48. _Tragum_ was made from wheat in the same manner as ptisan from
barley. Plin. lib. xviii. cap. 7.
49. _Wombs of hogs._) This amongst the ancients was accounted a
delicate dish; it is now entirely disused. The butchers give that part
the name of the bearing bag.
50. _Garum_ was a liquor made of the intestines of fish macerated
with salt. So that it was a kind of sanies of them in their putrescent
state. It was formerly made of the fish, which the Greeks called garos;
afterwards it was prepared from a great many more, so that the kinds of
it are almost infinite. It bore a higher price than any thing, except
unguents. One kind was of the colour of old mulse, and so sweet and
thin, that it might be drunk. Plin. lib. xxxi, cap. 7 and 8.
51. _Bulbusses._) The ancients had several kinds of bulbusses.
[IT]Dioscorides mentions the _bulbus esculentus_, which he says is
known to every body; it is good for the stomach and belly, of a reddish
colour, and brought from Africa. But the bitter and squillaceous kind
is fitter for the stomach, and helps concoction. All of them are acrid
and heating. Pliny, lib. xix. cap. 5. reckons up many species. Most
naturalists agree that they are not known now.
[IT] Lib. ii. cap. 389.
52. _Pancake_, _Laganum_.) This differed a little from our pancake,
as they added to it cheese, pepper, saffron, cinnamon, &c.
53. _Those called crustumina_, &c.) Pliny observes that such fruits
as these have taken their names, either from their planters, countries,
or the persons whose taste they pleased. All these pears and apples are
reckoned among the best kinds by him, lib. xv. cap. 14. and 15. as also
by Columella, lib. v. cap. 10.
54. _Wormwood._) In Linden and Almeloveen the word _absinthium_ is
followed by _murices_, _purpuræ_, _cochleæ_, which are omitted in all
[IU]Morgagni’s editions, except Ruellius and the MS. And as they appear
redundant here, the same words occurring a few lines after, I have
taken no notice of them.
[IU] Ep. 6. p. 145.
55. _Resinated._) This is made in different countries. It was very
common in Gaul, where the grapes not thoroughly ripening by reason of
the cold, the wines turned sharp, unless mixed with resin. The resin,
together with the bark of the tree, was either cut small, or powdered,
and mixed with the wine. Some separated the resin from it by straining,
others let it stand. Such wines become sweet by age. Vide Plin. Nat.
Hist. lib. xiv. cap. 20. Columella, lib. xii. cap. 23. et Dioscorid.
lib. v. cap. 817.
56. _Pecten_ was a name for shell fish striated like cockles.
57. _Murex and purpura._) These fishes afforded the purple dye, and
their difference was not considerable according to ancient authors, but
they are not known now.
58. _Sweet bread mentioned before_, viz. chap. 18.
59. _Scarus_, taken for the _scar_ or _char_, _lolligo calamary_, or
_sleeve-fish_, _locustus lobster_, _polypus pourcountrel_.
60. _Pelorides._) This was a sort of shell fish, so called from
Pelorus, a promontory in Sicily, supposed by some to be cockles.
61. _Soft water_, &c.) The reading in Linden is _Aqua, omnia tenera,
tepida_, &c. but it is not probable our author would have expressed
himself so loosely as to say _aqua_, without any epithet. By making a
small change in the order of the words, we find this properly opposed
to _aqua dura_, said in chap. XXX. to bind the belly; I have therefore
read with Constantine, Cæsar, Stephens, and several others, _Aqua
tenera, omnia tepida, dulcia_.
62. _Torminalia._) These, says Pliny, are the fourth species of the
service fruit, and probably called so from being used as a remedy; that
is, for the dysentery, as appears by the name. Lib. xv. c. 21.
63. _Sordid wool_, _Lana succida_, by Dioscorides called εἰρίον
οἰσυπηρὸν. The more oily sordes it contained, it was reckoned so
much the better and more emollient, upon account of its œsypum, the
preparation of which will be mentioned in its proper place. The wool
about the neck and inside of the thighs was most esteemed. Dioscorid.
lib. ii. cap. 720.
64. _Cimolian chalk._) This had its name from Cimolus an island
in the Cretan sea. There are two kinds of it, one white, and the
other inclining to purple. The first by Dale, is thought to resemble
tobacco-pipe-clay; and the second fullers earth. Vide Plin. lib. xxxv.
cap. 17. et Dioscorid. lib. v. cap. 950.
65. _Tarras_, _gypsum_, is a-kin to lime; for it is procured by
burning a stone, which ought to resemble the alabaster, or marble. The
best kind is made from lapis specularis. Plin. lib. xxxvi. cap. 24.
Amongst the moderns some take this to be the calx of alabaster, others
of Muscovy glass, others of the selenites.
66. _Oil of quinces._) _Oleum vel unguentum melinum_, according to
Dioscorides, was prepared by infusing and boiling some aromatics in
oil, and afterwards macerating quinces in it, and thus letting them
stand till the oil had imbibed the strength of the quinces. Others made
it with quinces alone. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 56.
67. _Or myrtles._) This is prepared by bruising and pressing the
tender leaves of the black myrtle, and mixing their juice with an equal
quantity of the oil of unripe olives, then boiling them together, and
taking off whatever swims upon the top. Some thicken the oil first with
pomegranate bark, cypress, &c. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 49.
68. _Of roses._) This is made by boiling the juncus odoratus with
water and oil, and after straining, fresh roses are infused in the
oil: they are stirred frequently with the hands rubbed with honey, and
squeezed. When they have stood for a night, they are pressed out. A
second and third kind of rose oil is prepared, by infusing the same
roses in fresh quantities of oil. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 54.
69. _Bitter oil._) This has probably been prepared from the wild
olive; for Pliny says, such is thin, and much more bitter than what is
made from the olive. Lib. xv. cap. 7.
70. _Made of far._) Far is a species of wheat.--Columella reckons
four kinds of it. Pliny says it is the hardest of all, and firmest
against winter. It was called also _semen adoreum_. It was the first
grain the Romans used. Pliny, lib. xvii. cap. 8, et Columella, lib. ii.
cap. 6.
71. _Cyprine oil_ was made from the tree called _cyprus_ in Egypt,
according to Pliny--And in his time some conjectured it to be the same
with the _ligustrum_ of Italy. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xii. c. 24.
72. _Oil of iris._) The oil is first inspissated by boiling it with
water, and the involucrum of the fruit of the palm tree (called by
Dioscorides, spatha). When this is done, an equal quantity of bruised
iris is infused with this inspissated and aromatized oil, which stands
for two days and two nights, and then is strongly expressed. A more
fragrant kind is prepared by inspissating the oil with balsam-wood and
calamus. After expression, a fresh quantity of iris may be added, if it
be desired stronger. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 67.
73. _Nitre._) So much has been said by modern authors concerning
the nitre of the ancients, that it would be impertinent to give a
particular account of it here. The greatest plenty was produced in
Egypt, in the lands which the Nile had overflowed. Most naturalists
believe it to have been a native alkaline salt. Pliny says, it was
adulterated in Egypt by lime, but that trick was easily discovered by
putting it in water, when the true nitre would dissolve, and the lime
not. Plin. lib. xxxi. cap. 10. where a long account of it may be seen.
NOTES
TO