Chapter XXX: Book II

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.

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