1. _Those things_, &c.) See book ii. chap. 2.
2. _Digested._) See note lib. i. p. 6.
3. _From the inguen._) Almeloveen would rather read _ingluvie_, or
_sanguine_, than _inguine_. But these cannot be reckoned among the
external causes. There is no reason to question the authority of the
text, if we remember what Hippocrates has said, aph. 55. sect. 4. ‘All
fevers proceeding from buboes are bad, except a diary.’
4. _For these reasons others defer it._) The translation is agreeable
to the reading of Linden and Almeloveen. But Morgagni[IV] informs
us, that all the editions in his possession, and the MS. too, read
thus: _Ob hæc ad mediam noctem decurro, id est, finito jam gravissimo
tempore, eodemque longissime distante, secuturis vero antelucanis
horis, quibus onmes fere maxime dormiunt, deinde matutino tempore, quod
sua natura levissima est._ That is, ‘for these reasons I defer it till
midnight, that is, when the most severe time is over, and the return
of it is at the greatest distance, this being succeeded by the hours
before day-light, when every body generally sleeps most quietly, and
these followed by the morning, which is naturally the easiest period
of all.’--He adds, beside the impropriety of the prescription, as it
now stands in Almeloveen, when Celsus meant quite otherwise; the place
is the more worthy of notice, that it shews Celsus, although not for
common, yet to have practised medicine.
[IV] Ep. 6. p. 157.
5. _Apply his hand to his wrist, ejus_ carpo _manum admovere_.) The
word _carpus_ appears suspicious, as it no where else occurs in Celsus.
On the contrary, in describing this part he says, _In manu vero, prima
palmæ[IW] pars_, &c. and Morgagni[IX] observes the old reading was
_corpori_, and _carpo_ only Constantine’s explication.
[IW] Lib. viii. cap. i.
[IX] Ep. 5. p. 115.
6. _Intrita._) We have no particular description of this food in
any of the ancients, as far as I remember. By comparing their several
applications of this word, I take it to be a general term for several
species of compositions, the ingredients of which were rubbed small in
a mortar, or softer materials macerated in liquids, as bread in wine,
mentioned by Pliny, _Intrita panis e vino_, lib. ix. cap. 8.--By our
author’s use of it here, it plainly appears to be something light,
soft, and simple, probably very like, if not the same with our panada.
7. _But if one in such a fever coughs gently_, &c.) _Siquis autem in
hujus modi febre leniter tussit, is neque vehmenti siti conflictari,
neque bibere aquam frigidam debet; sed eo modo curandus
est, quo in cæteris febribus præcipitur._--All this is omitted
in Morgagni’s MS.--Ronsseus suspected it to be interpolated, and
it is not to be found in the Pinzian edition, nor the Juntine, nor
Florentine.--Ronsseus’s suspicion arose from considering aph. 54. sect.
4.--‘Those that are troubled with dry and gentle coughs in ardent
fevers, are not very thirsty.’ Morgagni, Ep. 5. p. 140.--But perhaps
this objection might be removed by only reading _conflictatur_, instead
of _conflictari_.
8. _To twenty-four hours._) Linden and after him Almeloveen have
followed Constantine in rejecting the preposition _inter_. But the old
reading seems preferable, which was this,--_Inter horas viginti quatuor
et triginta sex_: that is, _The fit takes up between twenty-four hours
and thirty-six_.
9. _Cleanse his belly_, _vomendo ventrem purgaret_.) It is probable
by _venter_ here our author means the stomach.
10. _And apply that_, _et id ingerere._) I cannot help agreeing
with Scaliger, that these words are interpolated. For supposing them
to mean the application of the medicine here mentioned, yet that is
particularly directed a few lines after. Besides I do not remember any
instance of _ingero_ bearing a sense that would answer in this place.
11. _Greeks call zesis._ _Et jactationem, fervoremque corporis, quem
ζέσιν Græci vocant._)--All Morgagni’s[IY] editions and his MS. agree
in reading thus, _Fætoremque quendam odoris, quem ὄζην Græci vocant_.
Which word from this single passage of Celsus has a place in Stephens’s
Thesaur. Ling. Græc. But as the sense, according to this last reading,
is not near so proper, and as Linden, no doubt, had some authority for
his reading, I have abode by it.
[IY] Ep. 5. p. 139.
12. _Former regimen strictly._) After the words, to which these
answer in the original, there follows in Linden and Almeloveen, _Et
aqua tantummodo calida, si sitis est, uti: ac tum ita nono die balneo
frigus prævenire, et_. Which must appear manifestly corrupt; for this
would be making the paroxysm of a quartan fever return after one day’s
interval: so that though the other words were retained, yet _nono_
should be undoubtedly changed into _decimo_. But I have chosen rather
to follow the reading of Pinzi and Junta, which is perfectly consonant
with the context. _Septimo die balneo frigus prævenire, abstinere,
continere se debet; si febris redierit, ducere alvum; ubi ex eo corpus
conquieverit, inunctione vehementer perfricari, eodem modo sumere cibum
et vinum, biduo proximo se abstinere, frictione servata. Decimo die
rursus balneum experiri, &c._ This makes the directions which follow
_nono die_, to belong to the _seventh_; and _decimo die_ for _decimo
tertio die_ still preserves the regular succession of the fits. This
reading is confirmed by what our author adds in the next paragraph,
where he prescribes a new method to be pursued, if the fever should
return upon the thirteenth day. ‘Wherefore, if the distemper shall
continue upon the thirteenth day, the bath must neither be tried before
the fever nor after it, &c.’ For if we allow the reading of Linden, &c.
_decimo tertio die_, in the first paragraph, he orders bathing on this
day; and in the next he absolutely forbids it.
13. _Laser._) This was the juice or gum of a plant like the _ferula_,
by the Latins called _laserpitium_, by the Greeks _silphium_. That
kind, which was most esteemed, came from Cyrene, where it seems it was
worn out in Pliny’s time, for he tells us only one stalk was found in
his memory, which was sent to Nero; he adds, that for a long time they
had no other imported to them, but what came from Persia, Media, and
Armenia, where it grew in abundance, but much inferior to the Cyrenean,
and adulterated with gum, sagapenum, or bean-meal.--See Plin. Nat.
Hist. lib. xix. cap. 3.--Some of the moderns take this for assa-fœtida;
others, among whom is Dr Lister, think it a different thing, and
absolutely unknown now. I have therefore chosen to retain the original
word.--See the description of it Dioscorid. lib. iii. cap. 500.
14. _Happened in the beginning._) _Cum id initio inciderit_; thus
Linden and Almeloveen read it; some older editions have _vitio_, _when
that has happened by some mismanagement_; which agrees with what
our author says in the end of the 15th chapter. Perhaps it might be
_Initio, cum id inciderit_, that is, upon its first appearance, &c.
15. _That cannot be assigned._ _Certis partibus assignari possunt._)
Constantine, and after him Linden and Almeloveen, have thought fit to
omit _non_, which will appear to any, who considers the sense to be
manifestly wrong. Our author himself determines it in the beginning of
the fourth book, where with reference to this part of his work he says,
_Hactenus reperiuntur ea genera morborum, quæ in totis corporibus ita
sunt, ut iis certæ sedes assignari non possint_. See Morgagni, Ep. 1.
p. 25.
16. _There may be the same reason_, &c. _Nec minus dubitari potest,
an alvus ducenda sit._) The connection of this sentence with the
context has an obscurity very uncommon in our author. We must observe
that he is here maintaining the necessity of taking blood in phrenitic
cases against Asclepiades: and after general reasons drawn from the
nature of the disease, he adds an argument from the practice of that
physician. He prescribed clysters in this distemper, though, as Cælius
Aurelianus[IZ] observes, that was directly contrary to a principle of
his own. Celsus therefore insists, that there is no reason against
bleeding, that is not equally strong against clysters, which are
however approved by Asclepiades. According to the exact method every
where observed by our author, this argument would naturally have
followed what he said of friction ordered by Asclepiades: and as it now
stands after the conclusion drawn, it seems to be an after-thought. If
this explication be thought unnatural, it may be otherwise paraphrased,
and connected with the following paragraph thus: _The doubt is the same
with regard to clysters, as to the letting of blood, and the resolution
is also the same. But after either of these, intermitting a day_, &c.
[IZ] De Acut. Morb. lib. i, cap. 15.
17. _Ointment of saffron._) In preparing this they first inspissated
the oil by boiling it with calamus and myrrh, and then infusing saffron
in it for five days, and stirring it frequently; and on the sixth the
oil was poured off clear. Others added the myrrh in powder, after the
oil was poured off the other ingredients.
18. _Ajax or Orestes._) These cases are best illustrated by the
tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides, which our author seems to have
had in view. Ajax enraged to see Ulysses preferred to him in the
competition for the arms of Achilles, falls into madness. He resolved
to revenge this affront upon the whole army. And in the night ran into
the fields, where their flocks and herds were grazing, murdered the
shepherds and laid about him among the cattle, taking them for men;
slew numbers of them, which he imagined to be Agamemnon, Menelaus,
and others, that were accessary to his dishonour. Then bound and led
prisoners to his tent many more oxen and sheep to be reserved for
tortures, and flogged unmercifully a great ram for his adversary
Ulysses, before he put him to death. Orestes was affected in the same
manner. After the murder of his mother, he fancied himself haunted by
the furies, and her amongst them. He is represented as terrified by
their frightful looks, sometimes reasoning, sometimes beseeching, and
at other times drawing his sword to fight them. In one of these fits,
like Ajax, he falls upon the cattle. See Sophocl. Ajax flagell. et
Euripid. Orest. et Iphigen. in Taur. Such are the figures presented to
the imagination in this species of madness.
19. _Purged in the inferior parts._) The whole sentence, which runs
thus, _Ubi ab inferiore parte purgandus aliquis est, ventrem ejus ante
solvendum esse: ubi à superiore, comprimendum esse_, is taken from
aph. 66. sect. 7. And after comparing them together, I conceive our
author’s meaning to be, that when the intention is to purge, the belly
should first be moistened by diluent liquors taken inwardly, or perhaps
a laxative clyster administered to facilitate the operation. On the
contrary, when a vomit is intended, the belly should be bound.
20. _Polenta_ is made from barley in several ways. The Greeks pour
warm water upon the grain, dry it for one night, and the day following,
toast it, and then grind it. Others toast it more, and sprinkle it
again with a little water, and dry it before they grind it. Others
again shaking out the recent barley from the green ears, bruise it,
while moist, in a mortar, and wash it in baskets, dry it in the sun,
beat it again, and after it is cleansed, grind it. In whatever way it
is prepared, they first of all toast three pounds of lintseed, and half
a pound of coriander, with an acetabulum of salt, and mix it in the
mill, with twenty pounds of barley. Those that have a mind to preserve
it for a longer time, put it into earthen vessels with its own flour
and bran. In Italy it is ground fine after toasting, without pouring
any water upon it, and mixed up with the ingredients abovenamed and
millet. Plin. b. xviii. cap. 7.
21. _Vomit spontaneously._ _Sponte vomere._) That is, vomit without
any emetic medicine being given.
22. _Bulbous roots._) Aretæus mentions nothing of rubbing these
over the whole body; but he recommends the small red kind, crude with
pepper, and the powdered lees of vinegar, as the best cataplasm for the
feet in this disorder. To which he adds this caution, that they must
be frequently removed, for fear of ulcerating the parts. Lib. ii. de
Curat. Acut. Morb. cap. 3.
23. _Inject by way of clyster._) Celsus here shews that he knew
it was possible to nourish by clysters, and that it was sometimes
practised--Cælius Aurelianus mentions the use of clysters in this
disorder, particularly acrid ones, as prescribed by the followers of
Serapion, Heraclides, and Herophilus, and also by Asclepiades and
Themison. But he does not give the least hint, as if any of these
authors directed an injection with a view to nourishment, but only
to make a derivation of the humour from the skin to the belly. Cæl.
Aurelian. de Acut. Morb. lib. ii. cap. 38.
24. _Malagmas._) These cannot according to the present division of
compositions admit of a literal translation, and therefore the original
word is retained. By turning to the fifth book, chap. 17. and 18. will
be seen their difference from plaisters, &c. and that they consist of
various ingredients, but compounded without any heat.
25. _Catapotia._) Most of the moderns translate this word _pills_.
But our author does not limit their consistence nor form; for we find
him sometimes ordering them to be diluted, sometimes of the consistence
of sordes, and sometimes swallowed about the bigness of a bean, and
at other times dry powders given in some kind of liquor. See lib. v.
cap. 25.--Scribonius Largus defines a catapotium as a medicine, that is
swallowed without being diluted, cap. 22. comp. 87. Upon which Rhodius
will have them to be much the same with the bolusses now in use.
26. _Attempt that by diet._) The reading in Almeloveen and Linden
is _Alvum moliri cibo melius est_, &c. But as there was no mention of
the belly before, and no proper sense can be assigned to _molior_, as
it there stands, I have followed the old reading, _Sed id ipsum moliri
cibo melius est_, and the rather, as Celsus immediately subjoins proper
medicines for that purpose. This reading is approved by Morgagni, Ep.
6. p. 149.
27. _Nard._) It is generally agreed, that what we now have under the
name of nard, is not the ancient kind. Dioscorides says, it resembles
the cyperus in its smell, has a small head, is bitter to the taste,
and drying to the tongue, retaining its fragrancy for a long time.
There were two species of it, one called Indian, and the other Syrian.
Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 6.
28. _Balsam._) Our author does not distinguish what part of the
balsam-tree he intends. The ancients called the juice opobalsam, the
wood xylobalsam, and the fruit carpobalsam; which distinction Celsus
himself elsewhere uses. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 18.
29. _Panaces_, or _panax_.) Dioscorides mentions three kinds of
this, which are still retained by modern botanists. Considering the
virtues he ascribes to each, I think it probable our author intends the
_panax Heracleum_, or Hercules’s all heal, from whence the opopanax is
produced. Though it is to be observed, that Pliny affirms the opopanax
to be obtained from the panax Asdepium. Lib. xxv. cap. 4. P. Ægineta
from the Heracleum lib. vii.
30. _Cardamom._) It neither appears from Celsus nor Dioscorides,
that the seed was in use among the ancients. Some affirm it to be the
same with the modern greater cardamom. Dioscorides[JA] says, the best
comes from Comagene, Armenia and Bosphorus. It grows also in Arabia
and India. The best is firm, large, compact, and pungent to the smell,
acrid and bitterish to the taste; it has a heating quality. By this it
would seem they made use of the root.
[JA] Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 5.
31. _Acorum_ according to Dioscorides has leaves likes the iris, but
narrower, and roots not unlike to it, not growing straight, but oblique
and creeping on the surface of the earth, whitish, divided by joints,
acrid to the taste, and smelling not unpleasant. Lib. i. cap. 2.
32. _The flower of long and round cyperus._) In the original _Juncus
quadratus et juncus rotundus_. I shall not determine, whether what we
now call _cyperus longus, et rotundus_, are the same as here mentioned.
However, they certainly belong to the same class, and the virtues
ascribed to the present, agree pretty nearly with those attributed to
the ancient by Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 4. and 16.--See also Dale and
Schroder.
33. _Bound upon the skin._) This seems a very odd way of using
squils; the old reading appears much more just. _Utiliter etiam scilla
cocta delinitur cutis._ _It does good also to rub boiled squils
over the skin._ The same variety recurs at the end of the following
paragraph, _Sicut supra dixi delinitur_, instead of _Simul super
ventrem deligatur_.
34. _Frequent pimples._) That is the smoothness or continuity of the
skin is interrupted by pimples and ulcers.
35. _Takes its rise from the head._) From a catarrh, which the
ancients imagined to be a discharge from the brain through the os
ethmoides.
36. _Mild as gruel._) I have here departed from Linden and
Almeloveen, who have it thus, _Deinde lenis sorbitio_, &c. _Afterwards
mild gruel_, because the more ancient reading, _Dein lenis, ut
sorbitio_, besides being more elegant, is confirmed by the following
words of our author.
37. _And especially brains._) I have taken no notice of the words _ex
prima_ in the reading of Linden and Almeloveen, which manifestly spoil
the sense, otherwise complete without them. [JB]Morgagni observes,
that all the other editions read, either _ex pruna_, or _ex aprugna_;
but this last is not probable, because he said, that a boar was of the
strongest class of food, lib. ii. but the whole head of a lamb or kid
in the middle kind; and the former seems to be superfluous.
[JB] Ep. 7. p. 180.
38. _Comitial_, so called from the comitia or assemblies of the
people being adjourned, when any person was taken with one of these
fits.
39. _Arquatus._) The obscurity of this name gives room to the
conjectures of critics. Some tell us it was so called, because the
colour in the jaundice resembles the greenness of the rainbow; others
because it bends the bodies of those afflicted with it like a bow.
40. _Suppurations._) Ronsseus think this paragraph wrong placed here,
as having no connection with what goes before; and suspects its proper
place to be at the end of the twenty second chapter of this same book;
because the author there treats of consumptive people, and suppurations
of the lungs. Morgagni also believes it to be improperly placed, Ep. 1.
p. 32.
NOTES
TO