[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.
[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.
[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.