[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.
[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.
[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.