this branch, because surgeons assume to themselves the curing of many wounds and ulcers which I have treated of elsewhere, I can very well suppose the same person capable of performing all these; and since they are divided, I esteem him most whose skill is most extensive. For my part, I have left to this branch those cases in which the physician makes a wound where he does not find one; and those wounds and ulcers, in which I believe manual operation to be more useful than medicine; lastly, whatever relates to the bones."

It would here be out of place to enter further into a notice of the individual diseases of which he treats in the several divisions of his work. I may, however, mention, as particularly worthy of perusal, his chapters on diet and regimen, on blood-letting, on fevers, on poison-wounds, on the extraction of weapons from the body, on the diseases of the eye; his description of ranula and his mode of treating it; the chapter on diseases of the testicles and parts contiguous, including hernia, and the operations for these; and above all, his chapter on the operations for suppression of urine, and for lithotomy. In this we find all the necessary details for catheterism as 'still employed; and the Roman method of operating for stone by the transverse semilunar incision in the perineum, with the horns of the incision pointing towards the hips, as lately revived by Dupuytren and other modern surgeons.

In the management of wounds he advocates the use of simple and familiar, in preference to rare and expensive remedies, or the heterogeneous composi

treatise on the virtues of herbs, which has sometimes been ascribed to Apuleius Madaurensis, the author of the Golden Ass; but which those who have examined it with greatest care, attribute to Apuleius Celsus. The author of this treatise, De Medicaminibus Herbarum, states in his préface, that it was prepared for the benefit of the public, and to relieve the common reader from the verbose stupidity of the profession, the greater part of whom he characterizes as ignorant pretenders, more intent on the acquisition of wealth than on the cure of the sick. Much of the work is occupied with antidotes, and specifics against the bites and stings of venomous animals. It is proper to remark that some recent and able critics have questioned the authenticity of this work, and ascribed it to some unknown writer of the middle ages.

Scribonius Largus, who flourished during the reign of Claudius, and accompanied this emperor in his expedition into Britain, was an incorrect writer of the Latin tongue, but in a professional point of view, an author of considerable merit. Though an admirer of Asclepiades, he appears to have written in the spirit of empiricism. His treatise, De Compositione Medicamentorum,t is devoted rather to the composition and uses of medicines, than to the consideration of the diseases to which these are applied. Many of his compound confections are quoted by later writers. He abounds in remedies

Already mentioned in connection with the work of Antonius Musa, published at Bâle, 1536.

+ See the "Medicine Artis Principes," fel., Venitiis, 1567.

for the cure of particular ailments; and, as usual, his antidotes, theriaca, plasters, and embrocations, are highly illustrative of the polypharmacy of his times. He gives the formula for the celebrated mithridaticum, an antidote against all kinds of poisons, said to have been invented or employed by Mithridates, king of Pontus; but which, as here given, differs materially as well from the formula said to have been discovered by Pompey among the archives of Mithridates, as from that which we find in Galen.* How far this work of Scribonius Largus was original, and how far derived from other writers, we are not able to determine. By some critics it is said to have been little else than a translation from Nicander; but careful perusal will show that portions of it, at least, could not have been from that early source. The writer himself expressly informs us that the greater part of his compositions he had himself prepared and used, and that the rest were mostly obtained from his friends. Among these friends must have been Apuleius, his preceptor, whose writings he may have appropriated with considerable freedom. For Marcellus Empiricus, who makes no allusion to this work, and acknowledges that he himself has copied from Apuleius, gives numérous passages which are also found almost word for word in the writings of Scribonius. Again, this author has been charged with recom

* The Mithridaticum, according to Pliny, was a composition for the luxurious who could afford to pay for it, consisting of fifty-four different ingredients derived from abroad, and used where simple domestic remedies would have answered as well. See Hist. Nat. xxix. 8.

mending his medicaments indiscriminately; but he himself declares that, in the diseases for which they are intended, they will sometimes prove beneficial and sometimes fail, according to the condition or age of the patient, the season of the year, peculiarities of time and place, or other varying circumstances; and that even in bodies to all appearance similarly situated, the same agent will not always produce the same effects.

About this same epoch also flourished Athenæus, a native of Attaleia, in Asia Minor, who, while practicing and teaching at Rome, took strong ground against the Methodists, and became the founder of the Pneumatic sect.* He is generally supposed to have written subsequent to the time of Cornelius Celsus, inasmuch as the latter makes no direct allusion to him. But the doctrines of this fourth sect were essentially the same as those promulgated by Erasistratus, in reference to the Pneuma, or spirit, as a fifth element; the disturbance of which in the liv ing body was assumed to be the essential cause of all diseases. Now, to this doctrine Celsus does allude, and even devotes a section in strenuous opposition to it, referring to Erasistratus. as its author. The doctrine of a fifth element, however, was even more ancient than this writer. The term Pneuma was employed by Aristotle; and the five elements are distinctly enumerated in the "Epinomis," a dialogue which on good authority is ascribed to Plato,

* See Galen, Kuhn's edition, vol. vii. 609, viii. 749, xix. 347, 356. He should not be confounded with Athenæus of Naucratis, who flourished in the third century.

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