Talis Hyperboreo septem subjecta trioni
Gens effrena virûm Rhiphæo tunditur Euro.”
It was in this region of mist and cold that the celebrated race of the Cimmerians resided. See Herodot., i., 6, etc.; Homer, Odyss. x., 14. The montes Rhiphæi would appear to have been the Ural mountains which separate Russia from Siberia.
[438] It is well known now that excessive cold has a tendency to retard the growth of animals. This opinion is confirmed in several instances by Pallas (Voy. en Russie, i., 197; iii., 431.) Strabo mentions, as the consequences of the cold which prevails in the country of the Getæ, that there are no asses in it, the cattle want horns, and the horses are small. (Geogr., vii., 3.)
[439] Buffon, on the other hand, maintains that the Nomadic race are men of active habits. (Hist., Nat., tom. iii., p. 384.) Pallas, however, confirms the judgment of Hippocrates. (Voyag. en Russie, tom. i., p. 499.) See also Coray, ad. h. l.
[440] It is to be borne in mind that Hippocrates, and after him most of the ancient authorities, held that the fœtus is formed from the male semen. This doctrine prevailed generally down to the days of Harvey. Some of the ancient physiologists, however, maintained that “omne animal est ab ovo.” See Plutarch, de Placit. Philos.
[441] Ὑγρότης, when applied to the body, may signify both humidity and relaxation, in like manner as the adjective (ὑγρὸς) signifies humid and relaxed. We shall see an example of the latter signification in the Prognostics.
[442] This practice came to be one of the regular operations of surgery, being performed with the view of correcting the tendency of a joint to dislocation. It is minutely described by Hippocrates (De Artic., xi.), Paulus Ægineta, (VI., 42), Albucasis (Chirurg., i., 27), Haly Abbas (Pract., ix., 78). See the Sydenham Society’s edition of Paulus Ægineta, 1. c.
[443] The meaning of this passage is ambiguous. I have followed Coray, who gives some very interesting annotations on it. He translates these words, “Ils sont naturellement d’une complexion lâche et trapus; premièrement, parceque dans leur enfance ils ne sont point emmaillotés, non plus que les Ægyptiens.” Clifton has given nearly the same meaning of the passage: “Their fluidness and breadth proceed first from their neglect of bandages, as in Egypt.” Littré, on the other hand, appears to give a different interpretation of the passage: “D’abord parceque on ne les emmaillotte pas, comme en Egypte.”
[444] A fat condition of the body was also supposed adverse to conception in the case of cattle. Virgil alludes to this opinion, and the means used to counteract the effects of an excessively fat state of the body in the following verses, which have been always admired as an example how delicately a great genius can touch upon an indelicate subject: