For an example of the reduction of Celsus’s weights to ours, the following may serve. Lib. v. cap. 19. no. 7. Philotas’s plaister contains, Of Eretrian earth ℥ Ʒ ℈ gr. -- chalcitis, each p. iv.*. == 1/2 : 0 : 0 : 8 viz. Ʒi. gr. ii. -- myrrh multiplied by 4 -- calcined copper, each p. x.*. == 1 : 2 : 1 : 0 --and so all -- isinglass p. vi. *. == 0 : 6 : 0 : 12 the rest. -- rasile verdigrease -- round allum -- crude misy -- birthwort, of each p. viii.*. == 1 : 0 : 0 : 16 -- copper scales p. xx.* == 2-1/2 : 0 : 2 : 0 -- male frankincense, p. ii.*. == 0 : 2 : 0 : 4 -- oil of roses -- Bitter oil, of each three cyathi, or 1 quartarius == between 1/4 and 1/3 of an English pint. -- vinegar, a sufficient quantity. ERRATA, IN THE TEXT. Page 110 line 9 _for_ substances, _read_ medicines. ---- 189 ---- 26 _for_ flour _read_ flower. ---- 240 ---- 22 _for_ warm ingremedies _read_ warming remedies. ---- 249 ---- 14 _for_ comes _read_ come. ---- 257 ---- 30 _for_ verjuice _read_ omphacium. ---- 271 ---- 16 _for_ wines _read_ wine. ---- 323 ---- 31 _for_ straight _read_ strait. ---- 350 ---- 18 _dele_ also. A. CORNELIUS CELSUS OF MEDICINE. _BOOK I._ PREFACE. As agriculture promises food to the healthy, so medicine promises health to the sick. There is no place in the world, where this art is not found: for even the most barbarous nations are acquainted with herbs, and other easy remedies for wounds and diseases. However it has been more improved by the Greeks than any other people: though not from the infancy of that nation, but only a few ages before our own times; as appears by their celebrating Æsculapius as its most ancient author; who, because he cultivated this science with somewhat more accuracy, which, before him, was rude and of low esteem, was received into the number of their gods.(1) After him his two sons, Podalirius and Machaon, following Agamemnon to the Trojan war, were not a little useful to their fellow soldiers. But even these, according to Homer’s account, did not undertake the plague, nor the other various kinds of diseases, but only cured wounds by incisions, and medicines: from which it appears, that they entirely confined themselves to the chirurgical part of medicine, and that this was the most antient branch. From the same author we may also learn, that diseases were then believed to arise from the anger of the immortal gods,(2) and that relief used to be sought from them. It is also probable, that though there were few remedies for distempers known, men nevertheless generally enjoyed good health from the sobriety of their lives, yet untainted by sloth and luxury. For these two vices, first in Greece, and then among us, rendered men liable to many diseases. And hence that variety of