BOOK II.. 1. _not but in Any Weather._) Morgagni Observes, That in the

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 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.

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.-- 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.

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.) 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.

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 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.

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.