[424] It is but too apparent that there is a lacuna in the text here. A chapter devoted to an examination of the peculiarities of the Egyptians and Libyans is evidently lost. As M. Littré has remarked, Galen appears to refer to the contents of the lost chapter. (Opera, tom. xvi., p. 392; ed. Kühn.)
[425] That is to say, the Sea of Azoff. See Herodotus, iv., 86, who calls it Μαιῆτις. This was generally held to be the division between Europe and Asia, as stated by our author. As Coray remarks, its borders on the north-west are occupied by the inhabitants of Little Tartary: it has the Crimea on the south-west; the Tartars of Cuban and the Circassians on the south-east.
[426] That the inhabitants of a country bear a resemblance to the country itself, is no doubt a profound and most philosophical remark, although it must be admitted that the comparisons which our author makes are somewhat quaintly expressed, and hence a German physician wished the passage expunged, as being unworthy of Hippocrates. (Comment de Reb. in Scient. Natur. et Med. gestis, vol. xx., p. 131.) There can be no question, however, that it embodies a grand general truth, although the particular application of it may not always be apparent.
[427] On the Macrocephali, see Pliny, H. N. vi., 4; Stephanus, de Urbibus; Suidas and Harpocration in Μακροκέφαλοι; Pomponius Mela, i., 19; Strabo, xii.; Scholiast Apollon. Rhod., i.; Dionysius Periegetes.
The exact situation of the savage nation of the Macrocephali cannot be precisely determined, but it was evidently not far from the Palus Mæotis, and most probably in the vicinity of the Caucasus. Little is known of them, except what our author says respecting the practice which they had of disfiguring their heads by squeezing them, in early infancy, into an elongated shape. It is well known that the same absurd usage prevailed among the early inhabitants of Mexico. I need scarcely say that much important information respecting them has been obtained of late years. M. Littré, in the fourth vol. of his edition of Hippocrates, supplies some very important information in illustration of this subject, from a recent publication of Dr. H. Rathke. Certain tumuli having been excavated at Kertch, in the Crimea, there were found in them, besides different utensils and statues, several skeletons, and it was most remarkable that the form of the head was greatly elongated, in the manner described by Hippocrates with regard to the Macrocephali. The author’s words are: “On y remarquait, en effet, un hauteur extraordinaire par rapport au diamètre de la base, et par là ils frappaient même les personnes qui n’avaient aucune connaissance de la structure du corps humain.”
[428] The same theory respecting the secretion of the semen is given in the treatises “De Genitura” and “De Morbo Sacro.” It is espoused by Galen, in his little work. “Quod animal sit quod utero continetur.” Coray remarks that Hippocrates’s theory on the origin of the fœtus does not differ much from that of Buffon.
[429] I need scarcely remark that both the river and city of this name are very celebrated in ancient mythology and history. See in particular Apollonius Rhodius, with his learned Scholiast, Arg. II.; Strabo, xi.; Pliny, H. N., vi., 4; Procopius, Pers., ii., 29; Mela, i., 85; Arrian, periplus. The river takes its rise in the Caucasus, and terminates in the Black Sea. It is called Rion by the inhabitants, and the river and a city situated upon it are called Fache by the Turks. See Coray at this place, and Mannert., Geograph., iv., 394.
[430] Coray quotes from Lamberti, a modern traveller, a description of the Colchide and its inhabitants, which agrees wonderfully with the account of both given by our author. The following is part of his description: “Il sito della Colchide porta seco un’ aria tanto humida che forse in altro luogo non si è veduta la simile. E la ragione si è perchè venendo dall’ occidente bagnata, dall’ Eusino, et dall’ oriente cinta dal Caucaso, dal quale sorgano gran quantità di fiumi rende da per tutto l’aria humidissima affatto. A questo s’ aggiungono la frequenza de’ boschi, fra quali non viene agitata l’aria da’ venti, et li spessi venti marini apportatoi di pioggie et de’ vapori del mare. Questa humidità si grande genera poi gran quantità de’ vapori, che sollevati in alto si dissolvono in frequentissime pioggie.”—Relatione della Colchide, c. 27. He goes on to state that a great part of the inhabitants are fishers.
[431] It is singular that Procopius, on the other hand, states that the Phasis is a very rapid river, and Chardin confirms his statement. (Voyage en Perse, vol. i., p. 105.) Lamberti reconciles these discrepant accounts by explaining that the river is rapid in its course near where it rises among the mountains, but quite smooth and stagnant when it arrives at the plain.—Relat. dell Colchid., 29.
[432] The best practical proof of the justness of our author’s reflections in this place is the result of the battle of Salamis; and the noblest intellectual monument which ever the wit of man has raised to the triumph of freedom is the Persæ of Æschylus, in celebration of that event. A single line, descriptive of the Greeks, is sufficient to account for their superiority to the Asiatics: