1. _Chalcitis._) Pliny lib. xxxiv. cap. 2. says, this was an ore of
copper, and found in Cyprus. Dioscorides describes the best chalcitis
as resembling copper, easily friable, having shining veins. Lib. v.
cap. 889.
2. _Gum_, when mentioned alone in any of the ancient authors, is
understood to be the same with what now bears the name of gum Arabic.
3. _Calcined lead. Plumbum combustum._) The process of this is
mentioned by Dioscorides under the correspondent Greek name--It was
prepared by putting very thin laminæ of lead, with sulphur strewed
upon each of them, into an earthen pot, and keeping them on the fire,
stirred with an iron rod, till the lead was converted into ashes. It
was afterwards rubbed in a mortar, and washed by repeated affusions of
water, till no dross swam at top. Dioscorid. lib. cap. 870.
4. _Misy._) This hath the same virtues as the chalcitis, and they
only differ in the degree of strength. The best comes from Cyprus, of a
gold colour, hard, and when broken, shining and stellated. Dioscorid.
lib. v. cap. 891.
5. _Allum._) There are several kinds of this mentioned by the
ancients. Dioscorides says, the scissile, round and liquid, were
applied to medicinal purposes, and that the scissile was the best. Lib.
v. cap. 897.
(6) _Melinum._) As our author in this place mentions only simples, he
cannot intend by this word, oil of quinces; so that it must either be
a kind of colour that came from Melos, or else the Melian allum; in
which last sense the comma ought to be expunged betwixt _alumen_, and
_Melinum_.--But it is necessary to observe, that our author mentioning
this species of allum in the sixth book, calls it _Alumen Melium_,
which in other editions is _Alumen Melinum_.
7. _Iron scales_ are reckoned to have the same virtue as its rust,
but not so efficacious.
8. _White vine._) Paul Ægineta mentions the _Ampelos leuce_, or
_white vine_, which he said was also called _bryonia_. Lib. vii.
9. _Propolis_ is a gluey matter, of a fetid smell, found in the
honey-combs, which Pliny says serves to keep out the cold.--Dale calls
it bee-bread.--Others call it bee-glue.
10. _Soot of frankincense._) Dioscorides orders it to be made
thus,--“With a pair of small tongs light a bit of thus at a lamp,
and put it into a new hollow earthen vessel, which is covered with a
concave copper one, with an opening in the middle, and carefully anoint
it over; on one side or both, put small stones to the height of four
fingers, to show if it burns, and that there may be room to put in
other bits, before the first be entirely extinguished; and continue
this, till you observe a sufficient quantity of soot collected; always
wetting the external side of the copper with a sponge dipped in cold
water. For thus all the soot will be fixed, when this is not too much
heated: otherwise it would fly off again by reason of its lightness,
and be mixed with the ashes of the thus.” Lib. i. cap. 85.
11. _Sandarach._) This is the mineral sandarach, or red arsenic.
12. _Gnidian berry._) Modern botanists are not agreed, what this
berry of the ancients was; some taking it for the mezereon, or spurge
olive, others for the spurge flax.
13. _Omphacium._) Of this there were two kinds, the one the juice of
unripe olives, and the other the juice of unripe grapes. Plin. lib.
xii. cap. 27.
14. _Copper-scales._) This must be an interpolation, as in this same
chapter, which mentions only the class of cleansers, it occurred before.
15. _Calcined copper._) The metal was calcined by being put
into a pot, _stratum super stratum_, with sulphur and salt.--Or
else the copper was kept for several days in the fire in a pot by
itself.--Others again added allum to it, or sulphur alone, which last
gave it a sooty colour.--It was washed in a mortar, and the water
changed four times a day, till no froth arose in it. Dioscorid. lib. v.
cap. 861.
16. _Apronitre._) The spume or froth of nitre was of a purplish
colour, and the lighter the better. It had the same virtues with
nitre.--Id. lib. v. cap. 905.
17. _Chrysocolla._) I have here retained the original word, because
naturalists are not agreed, that it was the modern borax. Dioscorides
says the Armenian is the best, and in colour it resembles leeks.--What
is full of earth and stones is to be rejected. Lib. v. c. 878.
18. _Cyprus ashes._ _Cinis Cyprius._) I do not remember that this is
mentioned by any other ancient author; but it has probably been the
ashes of the tree or plant of this name, or perhaps some particular
kind of ashes brought from the island of Cyprus.
19. _Cadmia._) The best is the Cyprian, called botryitis, solid,
moderately heavy, being clustered like a bunch of grapes, of the colour
of spodium, and being broken it appears cineritious and eruginous
within. There are other kinds of it inferior, known by the names
onychitis, zonitis, and ostracitis. For burning cadmia it is hid in
live coals, till it grows diaphanous, and runs into bubbles like the
scoria of iron; afterwards it is extinguished in Aminæan wine. Some
burn it thus three times, till it be perfectly converted into ashes;
and then they use it instead of spodium. It is washed in a mortar, and
the water changed, till no dross appears on the top. Dioscorid. lib. v.
cap. 858.--I have here mentioned particularly the burning and washing
of cadmia, because it may serve to shew the nature of this process in
other minerals, when our author prescribes such; and Dioscorides in
mentioning them often refers to cadmia as the general example.
20. _Hypocistis_ grows near the roots of cistus. The juice of it is
inspissated like the acacia; and it has the same qualities. Dioscorid.
lib. i. cap. 128.
21. _Diphryges._) This is not known in medicine at present.
Dioscorides says ‘there are three species of it. One of the metallic
kind found only in Cyprus, which is first dried in the sun, and then
burnt by laying sticks all round it. Whence its name from being twice
torrified. A second kind is found at the bottom of the copper furnaces
after smelting. The third is the pyrites stone calcined for several
days in a furnace, till it have the colour of cinnabar. The taste of
diphryges is eruginous, astringent, and vehemently drying upon the
tongue.’ Lib. v. cap. 894.
22. _Salamander._) Our author here intends the animal so called, and
Dioscorides ascribes to it this virtue. It was burnt and the ashes made
use of. Lib. ii. cap. 255.
23. _Flower of copper._) _Flos æris_ is obtained, when the melted
copper runs from the furnace, by pouring cold water upon it to
refrigerate it. For by the sudden check, this substance is as it were
spued out, and concretes into flowers. Id. lib. v. cap. 862.
24. _Spodium_ was scraped off the walls of furnaces mixed with
sparks, and sometimes coals; that, which was generated in the gold
furnaces, was reckoned best for the eyes. Plin. lib. xxxiv. cap. 13.
25. _Phrygian._) This was made use of by the dyers in Phrygia, whence
its name. The best is pale-coloured and moderately ponderous, not firm
in its concretions, and having white veins. Diosc. lib. v. cap. 915.
26. _Scissile._) This is produced in the western Iberia. The best
is of a saffron colour; easily broken and split; in its contexture it
resembles the sal ammoniac. Dioscorid. lib. v. cap. 919.
27. _Vinegar_ is superfluous, because mentioned before in the same
chapter.
28. _Burned paper._) It must be observed the paper of the ancients
was made from the papyrus or paper-reed.
29. _Sansucus._) Dioscorides says this is the same with the amaracus,
or sweet marjoram, which is the name given to _sansucus_ by the
Sicilians and people of Cyzicum. Lib. iii. cap. 452.
30. _Asteriace._) I do not find that this word occurs any where else.
31. _Eretrian earth_ is very white, or of an ash-colour: this last,
and the soft is best. Dioscorid. lib. v. cap. 945.
32. _Poppy-tears._) Dioscorides after describing the _papaver
sativum_ and its virtues, says, ‘It is not improper to subjoin the
method in which the _opos_ or _juice_ of it is collected. Some then
cutting the poppy heads with the leaves, squeeze them through a press,
and rubbing them in a mortar, form them into troches. This is called
_meconium_, and is weaker than the _opos_. But whoever desires to
gather the juice, must proceed thus. After the heads are moistened with
dew, let him cut round the asterisk with a knife, but not penetrate
through them, and from the sides, cut straight lines in the surface,
and draw off the tear that flows, with his finger, into a shell; and
come again not long after, for it will be found standing upon it; and
the day following, it will be found in the same manner. It is proper
to rub it in a mortar, and forming it up, to set it by.’ Dioscorid.
lib. iv. cap. 647.--Pliny says, that the meconium is prepared from a
decoction of the heads and leaves; but is much weaker than opion. Lib.
xx. cap. 18.
From this account it seems plain, that our author means the genuine
tear, or the opos of Dioscorides.
33. _Antimony._ _Stimmi_, and in other places of our author
_stibium_.) Dioscorides’s description of this shews it to be the modern
antimony, lib. v. cap. 873.
34. _Dross of lead._) This is glassy, and has the same virtues as
calcined lead. If is washed in a mortar like other minerals. Dioscorid.
lib. v. cap. 878.
35. _Matter._ _Materia._) This is not meant here of pus, as will
appear by what the author immediately adds; but any humour, that is the
proximate cause of a disease.
36. _Struthium._) This was an herb used by dyers. Dioscorides says
it was well known. The wool-washers make use of it for cleansing wool:
the root of it is pungent and diuretic, and relieves in disorders of
the liver, &c. Lib. ii. cap. 381.--This herb is not known now, at
least by the same name. Some take it for the luteola, others for the
imperatoria, others for red valerian, others for saponaria.
37. _Nard ointment._) For making this, oil is inspissated with
cyperus, and for the fragrancy is added costus, amomum, nard, myrrh,
balsam. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 76.
38. _Cachrys_ is the fruit of the _libanotis fructifera_, which is by
some called zea or campsanema, and has leaves like fennel, but thicker
and broader, roundish, and creeping on the ground; the stalk, about a
cubit or more in length; the fruit has a heating quality, very drying,
whence it is good mixed with ointments against rheums of the eyes.
Dioscorid. lib. iii. cap. 492. et 93.
39. _Viscum_, bird-lime.
40. _Ammoniacum thymiama._) According to Constantine, this is nothing
else than gum ammoniac. I forbear to mention the conjectures of others,
that seem to be not well founded. Paulus Ægineta says, it is an opos,
or juice, endued with such an emollient virtue as to discuss schirri
and tophi. Lib. vii.
41. _Crocomagma._) This was the refuse left after the expression of
the oil in making the crocine ointment; which, besides retaining some
of the virtues of saffron, would also be in some measure impregnated,
with the aromatics used in the composition of that ointment. Vide Plin.
lib. xxi. cap. 20. et Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 26.
42. _Thapsia._) According to Dioscorides’s description and account
of its virtues, it seems to be the modern thapsia, or turpethum
garganicum, deadly carrot. Vide Dioscorid. lib. iv. cap. 739.
43. _Washed lead_ was thus prepared.--Put water into a leaden mortar,
and rub it with a lead pestle, till the water becomes black and
feculent; then strain it through a linen cloth, pouring water upon it,
that all that is dissolved may be strained; and repeat this till you
have a sufficient quantity. Then suffer it to settle, pouring water
upon it several times, till no more blackness stand upon the top; then
work it up into a troches and set it by. Dioscorid. lib. v. cap. 869.
44. _Cedria_ is what distils from the cedar-tree; the best is thick,
pellucid, and of a strong smell, and not diffusing itself when poured
out. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 106.
45. _Laurel oil._) This was made in different ways. One method was
boiling the berries in water when they fall off the tree, which causes
them to emit their oil, which is separated by the hands into _shells_.
Others impregnate the oil of unripe olives with cyperus, calamus,
and afterwards putting in the tender leaves of the laurel, boil
them together. Others add to these bay-berries, till the oil smell
sufficiently of them. Others mix with it storax and myrrh. Dioscorides,
lib. i. cap. 50.
46. _Rasile verdigrease_ is made by suspending a copper vessel, or
plate, over the steam of vinegar for ten days; then the verdigrease
produced is scraped off. Or else by putting one or more lumps or plates
of copper into husks of grapes grown sour. Dioscorid. lib. v. cap. 865.
47. _Oesypum_ is the oily part collected from sordid wool thus: the
wool was washed in warm water, and all its sordes expressed, the fat
swimmed a-top, with a froth, and upon throwing in some sea water, it
subsided to the bottom, and when all the œsypum was obtained from it in
this manner, it was purified by repeated affusions of water. When pure
it has no sharp taste, but is in some degree astringent, and appears
white. It has a heating quality, fills up ulcers, and is emollient.
Dioscorid. lib. ii. cap. 272.
48. _Boiled copperas._) Dioscorides mentions a species prepared
in Spain that had the name of χάλκανθον ἑφθὸν--_atramentum sutorium
coctum_. Lib. v. cap. 888.
49. _Cicine._) A proper quantity of κροτωνὼν, _of the Ricinus_, is
dried in the sun, till their exterior coat break and fall off. Then the
pulp is collected, put into a mortar, and pounded well, and afterwards
removed into a tinned kettle containing water, and boiled over a fire.
When all the juice is obtained from them, remove the vessel from the
fire, and take up the oil that swims a-top, and set it by. In Egypt,
where great use is made of this oil, they obtain it by first grinding
the seed, and then pressing it. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 38.
50. _Burnt ceruss._) Put powdered ceruss into a deep vessel; set
it on the fire, stirring it with a ferula, till it has the colour
of sandaracha, (red arsenick). Dioscorides also mentions a toasted
or roasted ceruss, but the process is of the same nature, and only
stopped, when the ceruss acquires a lemon colour. Dioscorid. lib. v. c.
877.
51. _Polybus._) I have chosen to read this name with the older
editions, because our author afterwards mentions the sphragis of
Polybus, which can have no other place to refer to but this.
52. _Cauneæ._) Mentioned by Cicero, De Divinatione, lib. 2.
53. _Susine ointment._) For making this, oil was first boiled with
wine, calamus, and myrrh, and after being strained, cardamom was
infused in it, til it gave a proper flavour, After this, to three and
an half pound of this oil were added the leaves of a thousand lilies,
and the whole was stirred with hands anointed with honey. After
standing a day and a night, the lilies were squeezed out. Dioscorid.
lib. i. c. 63.
54. _If a woman does not conceive._) _Si non comprehendit._ This
sentence has, in some copies, been joined with the former, _si
concidere vitio locorum, &c._ as if _comprehendit_ related to the
consistence of the pessus obtained by the honey. There are several
other explanations offered, but none of them with any appearance of
truth. I thought it capable of no other sense than what I have given
in the translation; and was pleased to find this supported by the
opinion of Morgagni, Ep. i. p. 18.
55. _Sprinkled on dry._) The words as they stand in the text,
seem capable of no proper sense. _Misy quoque et galla, si paribus
portionibus misceantur, corpus consumunt: eaque vel arida inspergere
licet, vel excepta cadmia, illinere._ I have therefore taken the
liberty to transpose _cadmia_, and place it after _galla_ for the
cadmia is as dry as the other two, and therefore could not serve to
bring them to any consistence; but still there seems to be a word
wanting after _excepta_, to denote the substance for uniting them.
56. _Marmor coctum._) I suppose this to be burnt marble; for
Dioscorides mentions a lapis alabastrites, which was burnt, and mixed
with resin or pitch, and thus used to discuss hardnesses. Lib. v. c.
927.
57. _Ignis sacer._) Some, among whom is Heister[JF], believes,
that Celsus calls an erysipelas _ignis sacer_, whereas he has
erysipelas under its own name, cap. 26. of this book.--Fabricius[JG]
ab Aquapendente, and Wiseman[JH], by his _ignis sacer_ understand the
miliary herpes. See our author’s description of it, cap. 28.
[JF] Chirurg. p. i. lib. iv. cap. 6.
[JG] Oper. Chirurg. lib. i. cap. 18.
[JH] Book i. chap. 17.
58. _Malabathrum._) It is a question, whether the modern malabathrum,
or Indian leaf, is the same with the ancient. Dioscorides says, some
will have it to be the leaf of Indian nard being deceived by the
similarity of its smell. But that is not true; for it is a vegetable of
a peculiar nature, growing in the fens of India, without any root, the
leaves swimming on the surface of the water. Lib. i. cap. 11.
59. _Black cassia_ is the second species mentioned by Dioscorides,
who says it is preferable to the first, and fittest for medicinal use;
the natives of Arabia call it zigir; it is thick, and smells like
roses. Lib. i. cap. 12.
60. _Myrrh called stacte_ was the oily part expressed from particular
kinds of myrrh, and was very fragrant. Dioscorid. lib. i. c. 78.
61. _Pontic root._) Dale, with Alpinus, believes the rhapontic of the
ancients to be the same with the true rhapontic of the moderns.
62. See note at chap. 24. book iv.
63. _Sil._) Rhodius, together with Constantine and Ronsseus, are for
reading _seselis_ instead of _silis_, for sil is a species of ochre;
and they take it for the _seseli Creticum_, or _tordylium_, _hartwort
of Candy_.
63a. _Between the fingers. Vel inter digitos._) Morgagni observes,
that, instead of these words, his MS. and all his editions read _In
articulis_ which the reader, he says, cannot wonder at, if he considers
what follows concerning the difficulty of curing wounds in the joints,
p. 297. of the original. Ep. 6. p. 144.
64. _Fibulæ._) The word _fibula_, in other classical authors is
translated by a _buckle_; which from its connection in such places
appears very proper. But upon comparing the several passages in our
author, where the use of them is directed, it seems very difficult to
give any account of them. The variety of opinions may very well be
reduced to two, those of Guido de Cauliaco and Fallopius. The first
believed them to be hooks, whose size was adapted to that of the
wounded member, curved at both ends in the form of the letter S, that
they might be fixed to both lips of the wound. According to Fallopius
the _fibula_ was nothing else but the interrupted suture now commonly
used in wounds.
Fabricius was at first of opinion, that the fibula was not made of
thread, but copper or iron, not hard, as Guido would have it, but
softer and flexible, that it might be fixed through the lips of the
wound and then twisted. But after mature consideration, he says he
found Fallopius’s opinion to be most agreeable to truth.
Rhodius in his treatise _de Acia_, where his design is only to clear up
_the fibula and acia of Celsus_, has been at immense pains to collect
every thing extant in any of the ancients about their _fibulæ_; but
as there is nothing which occurs in any of the old physicians more
particular than in our author, it is not to be wondered, that every
thing in his treatise of real importance to the scope of his enquiry,
is contained in Fabric. ab Aquapendente, lib. ii. de Vulnerib. cap. 5.
et de Chirurgic. Operation. cap. 108.
The principal places, in which our author mentions _fibulæ_, are lib.
v. cap. 26. p. 292. in the original, p. 293.--Lib. 7. cap. 4. p.
412.--Cap. 19. p. 462. et 464.--Cap. 22. p. 469.--Cap. 25. p. 473.
The difficulty seems to rest here, that our author should use the
term _fibula_, which in other classical authors is always taken for a
buckle, or something of that kind made of metal, without distinguishing
it from the ordinary _fibula_, as one should imagine he would have
done, had he intended thread. Could it be a metal wire with a loop at
one end, and the other first put through the wound, then passed into
the loop, and twisted; which it would be easier to cut than pull out?
This seems to obviate the strongest objection against its being of
metal, drawn from the verb _incido_, which some moderns would have only
applicable to thread.
Rhodius _de Acia_, cap. 6. will have the _fibula_ used to the prepuce
of boys (mentioned by our author lib. vii. cap. 25.) to be of metal;
and according to Joann. Britannicus a small ring either of silver,
gold, or copper.
I have only to add, that instead of _paulatim_ according to Linden and
Almeloveen, I have read _paulum_ with Pinzi, Junta, Aldus, and others.
65. _Soft thread_, _acia molli_.) _Acia_ occurs no where else but
in this single place of Celsus; the translation is agreeable to the
sentiments of Rhodius _de Acia_, cap. 14. and I think it capable of
no other sense. It may not be improper however to observe, that in
some copies, though they are not of the best authority, _acu_ is read
instead of _acia_, but with no apparent meaning.
66. _After applying._) I read with Constantine _imposito_ for
_impositum_, which last has no place in the construction with a proper
sense.
67. _And the flesh within is corrupted._) Malique odoris est, _et
caro intus corrupta_. All the editions of Morgagni[JI] have _carunculæ
corruptae_, and the MS, _carunculaeque corruptae_, which Morgagni likes
better; because it would have been to no purpose to have repeated _caro
ejus corrupta_, which had occurred only a few lines before; whereas
with the other reading, we expunge the colon, and make _carunculae_
relate to the verb _resolvuntur_.
[JI] Ep. 7. p. 206.
68. _The skin a little farther off._) I have here followed the
reading of the older editions, _ulterior_ instead of _deterior_ in
Linden, which agrees much better with the sense of the whole passage.
Vide Morg. ep. 6. p. 149.
69. _The skin is entire, but the flesh within._) Linden omits
_integra cute_, which is in the older editions, and Morgagni’s
MS[JJ].--As the sense seems to require it, I have taken it into the
translation.
[JJ] E p. 6. p. 144.]
70. _Almost all bites._) I read here, omnis _fere_ morsus, with
Nicolaus Junta and the Manutii, and not _feræ_, as Linden and
Almeloveen have it. For Celsus himself makes no distinction between
venenatos et non venenatos morsus.
71. _Psylli._) Pliny, from the authority of Agatharchides, says,
there was a nation called Psylli, in whose bodies there was some humour
destructive to serpents, by the odour of which they stupified them.
They had a custom among them of exposing their children to the fiercest
of these creatures, that they might try the chastity of their wives,
the serpents not flying from those, that were not of their blood. Plin.
lib. vii. c. 2. This account of Pliny’s has no better foundation than
other vulgar errors: but we may observe, our author was too curious an
enquirer into nature to give credit to such fables.
72. _Especially in Gaul._) The Gauls tinged their arrows in hunting
with hellebore, and cutting out the wound they made all round, they
pretended it made the flesh more tender. Plin. lib. xxv. c. 5.
73. _Cerastes_, from κερας, a horn, is a serpent of one or two cubits
in length, of a sandy colour in the body, and near the tail void of
scales; upon its head something rises like horns, and the parts about
the belly are covered with scales, orderly disposed, which as it creeps
along makes a rustling noise like hissing. Æt. Tetrab. 4. Serm. 1. cap.
28.
74. _Dipsas_, a serpent called by that name, from the immoderate
thirst, which is caused by its bite. It is found in maritime places, is
about a cubit in length, thick, and becoming gradually smaller towards
the tail. Id. cap. 22.
75. _Hæmorrhois._) Paulus Ægineta tells us, persons bit by an
hæmorrhois are tormented with pains, their bodies become short and
small, there is a violent hæmorrhage from the wound, and if there is a
cicatrix in any part of the body, it bursts and bleeds: the stools are
bloody, the blood discharged is grumous, blood is brought up from the
lungs by coughing; and being seized with a vomiting of blood they die
immediately. He adds, that remedies must be applied before the symptoms
appear; for after they come on, all means are vain.
76. _Chersydrus._) The name of this imports it to be an amphibious
animal, from χέρσος _terra_, and ὕδωρ _aqua_.
77. _The Phalangium_ is unknown to Italy, and is of several kinds;
one like an ant, but much larger, with a red head, the rest of its
body black and variegated with white spots. The bite of this is worse
than that of a wasp. The Greeks gave this name also to two species of
spiders, the lupus, and another downy with a large head. Plin. Nat.
Hist. lib. xxix. cap. 4.
78. _Pastinaca fish_ was of the plani kind, and had a cartilage
instead of a spine. The aculeus, or κεντρὸν of this fish is a remedy
for the tooth-ach, as Dioscorides informs us, and Celsus himself
mentions, lib. vi. cap 9. Dale calls it the poison fish, fire, or
fierce flaw. The liver is said to be good against itching; in oil it
removes lichens and lepras.--This cleansing quality attributed to it,
makes it probable our author intends it here, for no such virtue is
attributed to the water, or sea-parsnip.
79. _Now this is a very bad kind._) One of the great sources of
corruption is a false punctuation; and as I could make no sense of
this sentence as it now stands, I have translated it agreeably to the
following; _Namque pessimum id genus est. Fereque primum id fit, quod
cacoethes à Græcis nominatur._ As it stood before, the cacoethes was
called the worst kind, which our author contradicts immediately, by
saying that no other species but that can be cured. Some of the older
editions read _ob quæ_ for _namque_, that is, ‘Upon these accounts this
is a very bad kind.’ Which appears to agree better with the context.
80. _None of these can be removed but the cacoethes._) Here again
the sense of the author is manifestly corrupted by the punctuation in
Linden and Almeloveen; but Morgagni[JK] has set it to right in this
manner:--_Tolli nihil nisi cacoethes potest: reliqua curationibus
irritantur; et quo major vis adhibita est, eo magis. Quidam usi sunt,
&c._ The translation is conformable to this. Which reading is almost
the same with Constantine’s.
[JK] Ep. i. p. 36.
81. _Of a good juice._) See book ii. chap. 20.
82. _Probe._) One kind of the probe or _specillum_ of the ancients
was broad at one extremity for the purpose, which Celsus here mentions.
Vide Scultet. Armament. Chirurg. tab. 8. fig. 6.
83. _Chironian._) So called, says Paulus Ægineta, because it requires
a very great physician, such as Chiron. Lib. iv. cap. 46.
84. _These are the methods prescribed by physicians._) This
translation is agreeable to the reading of the most ancient editions,
particularly Nicolaus, Pinzi, Junta, and Aldus. _Quæ cum medici
doceant, quorundam rusticorum, &c._ In Linden and Almeloveen the
passage has a quite different turn: _Quæ cum medici doceant, ab
iis requirenda. Quorundam, &c._--That is, ‘These being the methods
prescribed by physicians, they will be best practised under their
direction.’
85. _Leaven._) The common leaven for bread among the Romans was paste
worked up without salt, and boiled after the manner of pulticula, then
suffered to stand till it turned sour. Plin. lib. xviii. cap. 11.
86. _From its figure, our authors call it panus._) _Panus_, a clue
or ball of wool or yarn; πη̃νος, or πα̃νος the Greeks used in the same
sense, but did not apply it, as the Romans did, to this tumour.
87. _The same applications._) I have here followed the reading of
Pinzi Manut. Ruell. Stephens and Morgagni’s MS. autem for _aut_, and
_tantum modo_ for _tantummodo_. Morgagni, Ep. vi. p. 156.
88. _If it does not slip out, &c._) Almeloveen and Linden read, _si
non dilabitur sede, qua innititur_; whereas the prior editions wrote,
_si non labitur, sede quale innititur_; i. e. ‘if it does not slide,
but rests upon a smooth surface.’ This Morgagni[JL] likes much better,
as agreeable to Celsus himself, who adds, _si inæquale quoque et
asperum_, &c, that is, in the first case where the probe rested, but
upon a plain surface, the caries was but little advanced; whereas under
the following appearances it was more considerable.
[JL] Ep. vi. p. 162.
89. _Collyrium._) This name, at present, is appropriated to medicines
designed for the eyes; in which sense the ancients also used it. But
they gave it a greater latitude, to denote likewise a composition
of powders brought to a consistence by some liquid, and formed into
something like a tent, of various sizes, according to the cavities it
was designed for. Thus Scribonius Largus orders a collyrium of the
bigness of a pine kernel, to be introduced into the anus, Cap. xxxvii.
comp. 142.
90. _Which is more ulcerated._ _Quæ magis exulcerata est._) Several
of the ancient editions read _quia_ for _quæ_, that is, ‘Because it is
more ulcerated.’
91. _Spreads wide._) This whole passage was very much corrupted in
the old editions. We are obliged to Linden for several corrections in
it; but he reads this part _Proceditque et latet_, that is, _It spreads
and conceals itself_. As this can hardly be the meaning of the author,
I read _Procedit latè_, which is in Pinzi, Junta, Aldus, and others;
only I take the liberty of expunging _et_.
92. _Cimolian chalk._) I have here kept close to the author’s term
_subcærulea_. Pliny and Dioscorides describe this kind as inclining to
purple. See note book ii. chap. 33.
NOTES
TO