[24.] Acorns.) Dioscorides calls this βάλανος μυρεψική. It is the fruit of a tree like the myrica.—It resembles the Pontic nut: upon being squeezed like bitter almonds, it emits a moisture, which is used for ointments instead of oil.—It grows in Ethiopia, Egypt, and Arabia. Lib, iv. cap. 742.
[25.] Ferula answered to narthex among the Greeks, and was a general name for several herbs of the same genus, from whence some of the fetid gums are obtained, as sagapenum, and galbanum.—The ancients made use of the stalks of these herbs, in the same manner as paste-boards are now used for fractures, as will be seen in the eighth book.
[26.] Refreshing to nature.) I have given a sense of the phrase secundum naturam (which is the reading of Linden and Almeloveen) very near to that, in which the philosophers use it, because I can find no other.—Pinzius, Junta, and the Manutii read vel mentha secundum naturam est. As the books vary, and none of them make the meaning quite clear, it might perhaps be plainer, if it be read, vel quod secundum eam naturam est, that is, Or mint, or something of the same nature.
[27.] Regimen for such patients I have already mentioned.) Vid. book i. chap. 7.
[28.] Minium.) Pliny complains that minium, which was used by the painters, was of a poisonous nature, and through ignorance often given in medicine instead of the Indian cinnabar. This last, he says, is believed to be the gore of a dragon crushed by the weight of a dying elephant, with the mixture of the blood of these animals. Minium was found in the silver mines in both the Spains, but hard and sandy; also at Colchos in a certain inaccessible rock, but this was a spurious kind: the best was got near Ephesus.——Minium some of the Greeks call cinnabar, others miltos. Plin. lib. xxix. c. i. & lib. xxxiii. c. 7. Cinnabar, says Dioscorides, some mistake for what is called ammion: for this last is prepared from a certain stone mixed with the silver sand in Spain, and no where else. In the melting pot it changes into a very florid and flame colour: it has a suffocating steam in the mines: the painters make use of it. But cinnabar is brought from Libya, and sold at a great price, in so much that painters can hardly have it for their use: the colour of it is deep, whence some have imagined it to be the blood of a dragon: it has the same virtues as the hæmatites stone. Lib. v. c. 883.—Miltos Sinopica, the best is solid and heavy, of a liver colour, not stony, very thin when melted. It is gathered in Cappadocia in certain caves; it is strained and brought to Sinope, and sold there, whence its name. It possesses a drying quality, and agglutinating, for which reason it is mixed with vulnerary plaisters, and drying and styptick troches. It binds the belly if taken with an egg, and is given in clysters to hepatick patients, Lib. v. c. 885.——Our author elsewhere prescribes minium from Sinope, which makes it probable, that he intended the miltos of Dioscorides. But upon comparing these several descriptions, which it is needless to enlarge upon, the learned reader may determine for himself.
[29.] Tetrapharmacum, or compounded of four medicines. Vid. lib. v. c. 19.
[30.] Myrrhapia.) So called, according to Pliny, from the likeness of their flavour to that of myrrh. Lib. xxv. c. 15.
[31.] If the hardness continue.) Si durities manet. This appears suspicious, as our author had mentioned no hardness before. In this chapter he first describes hysterick fits, then prescribes the proper treatment both during the paroxysms, and after they are over. We have very great reason to believe the whole chapter to be corrupted, for reasons which will be mentioned in a following note. With regard to this particular place, my opinion is, that after Celsus had finished what he had to say concerning hysterick fits, he next proceeded to treat of a hardness of the uterus; and after directing some remedies, in case of their failing, and the hardness continuing, he orders other medicines to be tried.—What renders this conjecture the more probable, is, that Aretæus, amongst the chronick diseases of the uterus, mentions σκληριη, a hardness. “There is,” says he, “another species of cancer, where there is no ulcer, but a hard and resisting tumour. The whole uterus is stretched, violent pains distress, and all the other symptoms are the same as in a cancerous ulcer of this part.” Lib. ii. de caus. et sig. morb. chron. c. 2.
[32.] Restringents must be used.) Si maligna purgatio est, subjicienda sunt coërcentia: thus Linden and Almeloveen.—Morgagni observes, that the MS. copy of Alex. Paduan, after the words subjicienda sunt, not only has a great vacuity to the end of the page, but in the beginning of the next coëuntia, and in the margin opposite to this chasm are written these words, Desunt in vetustissimo exemplari duo folia. Two leaves are wanting in the oldest copy. In this also, where the indexes were prefixed to each book, he found the following in the fourth—Vulva exulcerata est—De vesica—De calculis in vesica—In omni dolore vesicæ. And in the margin of the book, he found, Vulva ulcerata est, written opposite to Si vero vulva exulcerata est. Then should have followed the two other—And the last, namely, In omni dolore vesicæ, was set over against Præter hæc in omni dolore vesicæ, and not vulvae, as Linden and Almeloveen read it.
In the MS. in the library of St Anthony at Venice, he found the preceding chasm much larger, 42 large pages, the same observation in the margin, and the correspondent numbers in the contents of the book.—Morgagn. ep. ii. p. 45.—ep. iii. p. 50. So that it is probable our author had first finished the diseases of the uterus, as being peculiar to women, and then proceeded to those of the urinary bladder, as common to both sexes.