The Works of Oribasius

Review IX.

(Euvres (TOribctse ; Texle Grec, en grande partie inedit, collationne sur les Manuscrits, traduit pour la premiere fois en Franqais : avec une Introduction, des Notes, des Tables et ties Planches. Par les Doc- teurs Bussemaker et Daremberg.?Paris, Impvime par Autori- sation du Gouvernement a l'lmprimerie Imp6riale. Tome I., 1851, pp. lx. et 692 j tome II., 1854, pp. xii. et 924; tome III., 1858, pp. xxviii. et 724. The Works of Oribasius; the Greek Text, partly hitherto unpublished, corrected by the collation of MSS., translated for the first time into Wrench: with an Introduction, JSotes, Tables, and l lates. By Dr. Bussemaker and Dr. Daremberg.

we a sliort account of Dr. Just ten ago (April, 1849) gave years ' Daremberg's projected Bibliotheque,' or collection of the old Greek and Latin?medical writers. The plan was at that time suspended, in embarrassments which consequence of the political and social then that prevailed in France j and, indeed, the difficulties have arisen to thwart the execution of the work would have been more than suffi- But Dr. a cient to discourage any ordinary editor. Daremberg is man of no ordinary zeal and perseverance ] and accordingly, after repeated applications to successive Ministers for their assistance, and after repeated disappointments, in consequence of the overthrow either of a ministry or a government, he has at last had the satisfaction of seeing the work, which was commenced under the auspices of Louis Philippe, completed (or at least in a fair way of being completed,) "par automation du Gouvernement a l'lmprimerie 1 Imperiale." But the progress of the Bibliotheque,' from its commencement to its partial completion, deserves to be related rather more in detail; both because of its literary importance, and also because of the 402 Reviews. [April, peculiar differences it exhibits from our usual English mode of con- ducting similar undertakings. It was as far back as 1843 (sixteen years ago!) that Dr. Daremberg, who was already favourably known by his inaugural dissertation on Galen's knowledge of the nervous system, conceived the idea of publishing a collection of the ancient medical writers, more comprehensive than Kiihn's, and more carefully executed. After consulting MM. Littre and Andral, by whom the plan was favourably received, he applied to the Minister of Public Instruction, which post was then filled by M. Villemain; and at his request submitted to him a plan of the work, which received his official approbation, November 28th, 1844. He was then sent by the French Government on a mission to Germany to examine MSS. relating to the work; much in the same way as Dietz had, with a similar object, visited most of the great European libraries at the expense of the Prussian Government. After his return, in 1846, at the request of a fresh Minister, he submitted his plan to the Academy of Inscriptions and the Academy of Medicine, both of which learned Societies ex- pressed their approbation, and recommended it to the favourable notice of the Government. He was in consequence sent on a literary mission to this country, where he visited the principal libraries at London, Oxford, and Cambridge. On the 22nd of February, 1848, he received an official assurance that the Government would assist his work " " by bearing part of the expense. But on the morrow," says he, many other hopes besides mine were overturned." However, towards the end of the same year, in consequence of a fresh application to another Minister, the Republican Government authorized the printing of his edition of Oribasius at the National (no longer the Royal) press. In the early part of 1849 he paid a second visit to England, in com- pany with Dr. Bussemaker, more especially for the purpose of collating a MS. of Oribasius in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge and, towards the end of the same year, he was sent by the Govern- ment to visit the libraries in Italy. In 1851 the official promise of assistance was once more ratified, and the first volume of his work appeared. Among the large number of writers to be comprehended in his ' Bibliotlieque,' it was a matter of comparatively little importance which author should be published first; and accordingly Dr. Darem- berg was induced to commence with Oribasius by his meeting with Dr. Bussemaker, who had already published a portion of this writer's principal work, and who was then occupied with preparing a complete edition of it. (Tome i. p. v.) Upon the whole, we think the choice of Oribasius a very judicious one. Though less known to the medical world than Hippocrates, Galen, Dioscorides, Aretseus, and Celsus, and therefore perhaps less generally interesting, this writer's works are much more rarely met with, and also offer much greater opportunities for the ' * The results of liis two visits to this country are partly given in his Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits Medicaux Grecs, Latins, et Fraâis, des principales Bibliotheques de 1'Europe.' The first part contains a catalogue raisonne of the Greek medical MSS. now existing in England, with the exception of those in Caius College Library, Cambridge, which will be noticed in the second part of the work. 1859.] The Works of Oribasius. 403 improvement of the text by the publication of numerous inedited passages taken from MSS. which had never been examined. But before ?saying anything more about the manner in which Drs. Bussemaker and Daremberg have executed their task, perhaps we may as well give a few particulai's of Oribasius himself; and as the editors (by what -appears to us a strange oversight,) have omitted all notice of his personal we shall have recourse to Dr. William Smith's ' history, Dictionary of Greek and .Roman Biography,' which contains a tolerably full account of a life more than usually eventful and interesting. Oribasius was born either at Sardes or Pergamus, probably about A.d. 325. He belonged to a respectable family, received a good pre- liminary education, and early acquired a great professional reputation. He became acquainted with the Emperor Julian before he ascended the throne, and was almost the only person to whom the young prince imparted the secret of his apostasy from Christianity. He accompanied Julian into Gaul, a.d. 355, and it was about this time that, at his command, he began the compilation of his principal medical work. He is supposed to have been in some way instrumental in raising Julian to the throne, A.D. 361, and was in consequence appointed Qufestor of Constantinople, and sent on a mission to Delphi to en- deavour to restore the oracle of Apollo. He accompanied the Emperor in his expedition against the Persians, and was with him at the time of his death, a.d. 363. By the succeeding Emperors he was banished from Constantinople, his property was confiscated, and he wras even in danger of his life. The cause of his disgrace is not known, but we may conjecture that he had made himself obnoxious, either in the discharge of his duties as Quaestor, or by his enmity against the Christians. In his exile, Oribasius exhibited proofs both of his fortitude and of his medical skill, and is said to have gained such influence and esteem " among the barbarian Kings" (as they are called), that he became one of their principal men, while the common people looked upon him as almost a god. It is supposed that his banishment did not last many years. After his return he married a lady of good family and fortune,and had by her four children, one of whom was probably his son Eustathius, for whose use and at whose request he made an abridgment of his principal medical work, which is still extant. He also had his property restored out of the public treasury, and lived to a good old age, as he was alive as late as the year 395. Of the personal character of Oribasius we know little or nothing; but it is clear that he was much attached to Paganism and to the heathen philosophy. He was an intimate friend of who ' Eunapius, inserted in his Vit;e Philosophorum et Sophistarum" an account of his life, in which he praises him very highly. He was the author of several works, of which we possess three that are generally considered to be genuine?viz., 1. The Suraywycu 'Iarpirat, Collecta Medi- cinalia, sometimes called 'E/ôjujj/covra/BijQXof, from its consisting of seventy (or seventy-two) books; 2. The 'oxpig, Synopsis, consisting of nine books, addressed to his son Eustathius ; and 3. The EvTropicrra, De 404 lleviews. [April, facile Parabilibus, in four books, addressed to his friend Eunapius. It is the first of these that is now being published by Drs. Bussemaker and Daremberg, and to this we will confine our observations. It contains little original matter, but is a judicious collection of extracts from Galen and Dioscorides, and other writers whose works are no longer extant. It had become scarce, on account of its bulk, as early as the time of Paulus Êgineta, in the seventh or eighth century. It was translated into Arabic in the ninth century; but in the following century, though Haly Abbas was aware of its existence, he says he had never seen more than one book out of the seventy. More than half of the work is now lost, and (with respect to prac- tical medicine) the most valuable and interesting portions. The state of the Greek text before the present edition may be briefly noticed, and we will at the same time mention the amount of hitherto unpublished books and fragments which are now for the first time brought to light. The first fifteen books were published by Mattliaei at Moscow, in 1808, but with the omission of all the passages taken from Galen, Dioscorides, and Rufus, as these were already to be found in the published editions of the works of those writers. As, however, the present editors have undertaken to publish the work of Oribasius as nearly as possible in the state in which he left it, all these passages have very properly been restored to their respective places, with the important exception of the whole of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth books, which, being simply a transcript of the descriptive part of the Materia Medica of Dioscorides, are omitted altogether. Of the sixteenth book a short fragment is published for the first time. With respect to the subject matter of these sixteen books, it may be enough to state generally that the first four treat of the different kinds of food; the fifth, of drinks; the sixth, of exercises and gym- nastics; the seventh and eighth, of bloodletting, purging, and other evacuations; the ninth and tenth, of climate, localities, baths, and other external remedies; the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, of materia medica; the fourteenth and fifteenth, of simple medicines and their properties; and the sixteenth, of compound medicines. The seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth books appear to be entirely lost. Sixteen chapters belonging to the twenty-first and twenty-second books (treating of general physiology, and of the function of generation,) are published for the first time. These are followed by forty-five chapters, which are evidently in confusion and out of their proper place and order, and which treat of hygiene, general pathology and symtomatology, and physiology. Dietz considered all these to belong- to the twenty-first and twenty-second books, but the present editors (for reasons which appear to us to be sufficiently convincing,) have preferred styling them extracts from uncertain books: they have never before been published. The twenty-third book is lost. The twenty- fourth and twenty-fifth books, treating of descriptive anatomy, had been published twice before, but are here reproduced in a corrected and somewhat enlarged form. One of the happiest discoveries made by the editors was the finding, at Heidelberg, a MS., which they have 1859.] The Works of Oribasius. 405

been able to prove to be the original from which all the other existing MSS. of these two books were transcribed. All the books from the twenty-sixth to the forty-third (both in- clusive,) have disappeared. The forty-fourth book, which relates to abscesses aud tumours, and which finishes the third volume of the new edition, had previously been published by Cardinal Mai in the fourth volume of his ? Classici Auctores,' &c., with the omission of all the extracts from Galen. It had also been reprinted as an inaugural dissertation for his medical degree at Grouingen by Dr. Bussemaker. It is now reproduced in an enlarged and corrected form; indeed so much improved, that Dr. Bussemaker's former edition (though by no means a despicable performance,) is not even alluded to, as if it were quite unworthy of being kept in remembrance. With respect to the remaining portion of the work, we will merely state that nothing is extant after the forty-ninth book, with the exception of a few fragments. From the above remarks our readers will be able to form some idea of the extent to which the text has been enlarged. But it has also been improved by numberless verbal corrections, some derived from the collation of MSS., some from Galen's works, (in the passages taken from this author,) and some few from mere conjecture. In the more purely philological part of their work the editors have also had the assistance of M. Diibner, one of the most competent scholars now in Paris, so that every care has evidently been taken to render the execution of the work as perfect as possible. The Greek text is accompanied by a French translation on the same page, beneath which are the various readings. Dr. Daremberg appears to have twice changed his opinion (or at least the plan of his work,) "with respect to the language in which his translation should be framed. In the "Prospectus and Specimen," published in 1847, he says (p. that he at first intended to give a French translation to all 35), ' the authors composing his Bibliotheque,' but that grave considera- tions induced him to alter his plan ; and, in fact, the published Speci- men has a Latin translation, and not a French one. The reasons for as collection is intended this change were (briefly) follows :?His not only for Frenchmen, but for the learned of all nations, and Latin is still the universal language of scholars \ all the learned physicians and philologers whom Dr. Daremberg consulted on the subject, agreed in recommending a Latin translation in preference to a French one ; several of the works to be comprised in the collection will have no real interest except for scholars, and, in fact, will hardly bear to be translated into any modern language ;* it would have been impossible to- * The force of this latter observation wo have ourselves felt very strongly when looking at Dr. Adams's Hippocrates, Areta:us, and I'aulus yEgineta ; and in our notices of two of these works we have remarked upon the unfairly ridiculous appearance given to certain passages by means of the English translation. Dr. Daremberg instances (among other works,) the chapters and treatises relating to pharmacy, as being unfit to be given to the public in a French translation. May we be excused for quoting our own observations relative to these passages of Paulus iEgineta ? "The general principles of therapeutics were almost as well understood by the ancients as by ourselves; and a treatise on that subject, written by a sensible man two thousand years ago, would bear reading very well 406 Reviews. [April,

find in France (or any other single country,) a sufficient number of persons able and willing to translate into the vernacular tongue all the works intended to form part of the 1 Bibliotheque ?' and, lastly, it was hoped that a separate translation of the principal authors or treatises might at some future time be published in French. He was, however, induced to return to his original intention of giving a French translation, by the unanswerable argument, that neither of the Academies to which his plan was submitted approved of a Latin one, and that both the Minister of Public Instruction and the publisher declined to assist in publishing one (tome i. p. xlvi). Dr. Daremberg avows his own predilection in favour of translations in modern languages, on the grounds that these alone afford any real assistance in the explanation of difficult passages, and also that these alone "allow the translator to make no sort of compromise with the text" ("les seules qui permettent de ne faire aucune espece de compromis avec le texte"), by which somewhat obscure and affected expression we ima- gine him to mean, that it would be scarcely possible for a person who was translating Hippocrates into English, to shirk the difficulties he might meet with, which, if he were making a Latin version, he might easily do, and might make his reader (and perhaps himself also,) be- lieve, that, by putting down a Latin word in the place of each Greek word, he was really executing a translation of his author. Certainly, we would not be thought to undervalue modern translations, and it is impossible to deny, that, in many Latin versions, we are apt to be treated in the provoking manner just alluded to ; but, nevertheless, " we are inclined to agree with the foreigners," who (as Dr. Darem- " berg allows,) have made serious objections against a French translation," and, upon the whole, to regret that the published work does not in this respect agree with the Specimen. We should have preferred having the modern translations (English, French, or German,) separate from the Greek text; for probably the greater number of those who would use them might be willing to purchase one or two inexpensive ' volumes, (such as Dr. Daremberg's own CEuvres Choisies d'Hippo- crate,") but would be deterred by the size and cost of five or six large tomes like his ' Oribasius.' "We do not feel competent to express any opinion as to the style of the translation, but will simply state, that, in those passages which we have examined, we have found it accurate, and (for a French work,) not unusually diffuse and wordy. The notes relating to the text, which are as brief as possible, are even in the present day. But a work on pharmacy, or one containing many medical prescriptions, certainly labours under great disadvantages when exposed to the public in an English dress. Accordingly, when some of the members of the Sydenham Society, upon opening the pages of Paul us iBgineta, were inclined to shut the book with feelings of mingled ridicule and disgust, on account of the uncouth names they met with, and the .strange substances recommended as medicines, they should have borne in mind, that it is only of late years that these and similar substances have been expunged from the materia medica of modern European nations; that several of even Sydenham's prescriptions read somewhat strangely in Swan's or Pecliey's translation; and that, even in the case of our own pharmacopoeia, the plain homely English names of coltsfoot, bearberry, dandelion, pennyroyal, peUitory, buckbean, &c., have not quite so imposing and dignified a sound as their Latin synonymes." (Brit, and For. Med.-Chir. Review, vol. ii. p. 57.) 1859.] The Works of Oribasius. 407

placed at the bottom of each page; those which explain the subject- matter of the work are longer, and are placed at the end of the volume. We have been much struck by their copious but not ostentatious learning, and the editors seem in general to have avoided the excessive diffuseness which is often so fatal a temptation to a learned man writing notes in his own language.* We think that some information should have been given about the authors quoted by Oribasius. For instance, in the seventh book (ch. 19, tome ii. p. 64) there is an extract on scarification, from a ' lost work by Apollonius. Now, it appears from Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography,' that there were nearly twenty ancient physicians of this name, and a person might possibly like to know which is the individual here quoted. This not unreasonable curiosity might have been satisfied in a very short note, stating that from comparing this chapter with a passage in one of the author's other works,t it appears that Apollonius Pergamemis is the writer here meant. Probably, however, all information of this soi*t is re- c served for the Index Historicus' at the end of the work, in which form the greatest amount of matter can be comprised in the smallest space. We are glad to find that the editors propose to furnish each author with a complete set of indices. In the case of Oribasius, there will be five?viz., 1, verbal; 2, historical; 3, geographical; 4, pharmaceutical; and 5, general index of facts, opinions, &c. We cannot help especially noticing the typographical beauty of the Volumes, and their general accuracy, which reflects the highest credit on all the parties concerned. We were sorry to find that in the second and third volumes, in order to economize space, and thereby save expense, certain typographical alterations were made, which detract slightly both from the beauty and the utility of the work; but ^e are bound to add, that, if the first volume had appeared in the less expensive form, no one would have had reason to be dissatisfied. We may mention that this country may claim some slight portion of re- flected credit from the excellent typographical arrangement of the work, as Dr. states that in this respect he took Daremberg (p. xliv.) ' as his model the Oxford edition of Theopliilus, De Corporis Ilumani Fabrica,' which was considered, by one of our predecessors at the time ?f u the best its appearance in 1842, to be decidedly edition of an ancient medical author with which they were acquainted."^ We wished to have said something about the medical opinions of Oribasius himself, but find it impossible to do so, for in a work which is confessedly a mere compilation, even if there are any original observations of the writer, there are no means of distinguishing them. Freind quotes (from lib. xxiv. c. 8, tome iii. p. 311) his description of

* The difference in this respect between Latin and French notes is illustrated by the editors themselves; for we find that the same amount of matter which is given in six " lines in the Specimen" (p. 63), takes up eight longer lines in a smaller type in the published work (tome i. p. 575). t Eupor. i. 9, p. 578 C., ed. II. Stepli. I Dritish and Foreign Medical Review, vol. xv. p. 141. 408 Jievieivs. [April,

" the salivary glands, as being either omitted by Galen, or lost together with some other of Galen's works."'15' It now appears that the passage in question is taken from the tenth (inedited) book of Galen's work, ' De Anatomicis Administrationibus.' Sprengelt says that he himself states that he had dissected apes ; but, upon referring to the passage referred to,X we find (by the help of a very complete table of parallel chapters, given in the new edition,) that it is not Oribasius himself who is speaking, but Galen. ? Nevertheless, the works of Oribasius are some of the most valuable medical remains of antiquity, and will always be consulted by those who wish to know the opinions or mode of practice adopted by the early and while we think that Dr. Daremberg might have physicians; ' found a more popular writer for the commencement of his Biblio- theque,' we think he could hardly have chosen one better fitted for exhibiting the extent of his qualifications for the task he has undertaken.

* History of Physic, vol. i. p. 13. t Hist, de la Med., tome ii. p. 185, French translation, t Lib. vii. c. 5, ? '24, tome ii. p. 35. 5 De Anat. Admin, iii. 9, torn. ii. 396,ed. Kiilin.