407 



SERAPION. 



SERAPION. 



403 



of Castile and Leon over America. This work however was never 

 printed, for when Sepulveda applied to the Royal Council for per- 

 mission to print it, it was refused, and the book itself was condemned 

 by the universities of Alcalst and Salamanca, to which the case was 

 afterwards referred. Upon this Sepulveda wrote his * Apologia pro 

 Libro de Justis Belli Causis contra Indoa suscepti,' which appeared at 

 Rome, 8vo, 1550 : but the edition was seized by order of Charles V., 

 and but few copies were saved. Sepulveda died in 1574, at the age of 

 eighty-three. 



Sepulveda was a man of great learning. Erasmus speaks of him in 

 the ' Ciceronianus,' and classes him among the best writers of his time. 

 Besides his Latin translation of part of Aristotle, which appeared at 

 Paris, fol., 1531, and that of the Commentary of Alexander of Aphro- 

 disias upon the same, which he had previously printed at Rome, fol., 

 1 527, Sepulveda left the following works : ' De Fato et Libero Arbitrio 

 Libri Tres,' 4to, Rome, 1526, being a refutation of Luther's opinions 

 on fate ; 'Ad Carolum V. Cohortatio ut facta cum omnibus Christianis 

 Pace, Bellum suscipiat in Turcas,' 4to, Bolonia, 1529; 'Antapologia 

 pro Alberto Pio in Erasmum,' 4to, Paris, 1531 (this was written in 

 defence of Cardinal Carpi) ; ' De Ritu Nuptiarum et Dispensatioue 

 Libri Tres,' 4\o, Rome, 1531, and London, 1553; ' De Convenientia 

 Militaris Disciplinao cum Christiana Religione.' In this work, written 

 in the form of a dialogue, and dedicated to the celebrated Duke of 

 Alba, the author undertakes to prove that the profession of arms is 

 in harmony with the doctrines of Christianity. It was translated into 

 Spanish by Barba, 4to, Sev., 1541. 'De Appetenda Gloria;' 'De 

 Ratione dicendi Testimonium in Causis Occultorum Criminum,' 4to, 

 Vallad., 1538; 'De llegno et Regis Officio,' 8vo, Lerida, 1571. A 

 history of the reign of Charles V., another of that of Philip II., and a 

 narrative of the conquests of the Spaniards in Mexico, all three works 

 in Latfn, are still inedited. Sepulveda's works were collected and 

 published, with the exception only of his translations, at Cologne in 

 1602. They have since been reprinted, in 1780, at Madrid, by the 

 Royal Academy of History, in four volumes, folio, with a portrait of 

 the author and an account of his life and writings. 



There is another Spanish writer named SEPULVEDA LORENZO, who 

 flourished about the same time, and gained considerable reputation 

 as a writer of romances. He published ' Romances sacados de Histo- 

 rias Antiguas,' 8vo, Antw., 1551 and 1580; 'Romances sacados de la 

 Historia de Espaiia del Rey Don Alonso,' 8vo, Medina, 1562 ; Svo, 

 Antw., 1580 ; ' Otros Romances sacados de la Historia y de los Quarenta 

 Cantos de Alonso de Fuentes,' 12mo, Burgos, 1579 ; ' Cancionero de 

 Romances,' 12mo, Vallad., 1577. 



SERA'PION (^.epairiwv), an eminent physician of Alexandria, in the 

 3rd century B.C., who belonged to the sect of tbe Empirici, and who 

 so much extended and improved the system of Philinus, that the 

 invention of it is by some authors attributed to him. (Celsus, ' De 

 Medic.,' lib. i., prsefat.) 



Dr. Mead, in his 'Dissert, de Numis quibusdam a Smymseis in 

 Medicorum Honorem cusis ' (p. 51), believes that he was a pupil of 

 Erasi-tratus, because his name appears upon a medal discovered at 

 Smyrna, and because the followers of that celebrated anatomist lived 

 in that town ; but as the Empress Eudocia (Violar. apud Villoison, 

 ' Anecd. Grsec./ torn, i., p. 381) mentions a rhetorician of Mlia, Capito- 

 lina (Jerusalem) in Palestine who bore the same name, one would have 

 quite as much right (says Sprengel) to reckon Serapion among the 

 rhetoricians, if Hadrian, the founder of the* town of JElia, had not 

 lived much later than the time of Serapion. 



Serapion wrote against Hippocrates with much vehemence, and 

 occupied himself almost exclusively with researches into the nature 

 of drugs. (Galen, ' De Subfigur Empiric.,' cap. 13, p. 68, ed. Bas.) 

 Ccclius Aurelianus (' De Morb. Acut.,' lib. ii., cap. 6, p. 84) quotes his 

 book ' Ad Sectas,' finds fault with the severe remedies that he pre- 

 Bfribed in Angina Pectoris, and reproaches him with having neglected 

 dietetics. ('Ibid.,' lib. iii., cap. 4, p. 195.) One may presume that in 

 those early times a great many superstitious remedies were used for 

 epilepsy ; for Serapion, besides castoreum, recommended also the 

 ' brain of the camel,' the rennet of the sea-calf, irvrta. <f>u>Kris, the excre- 

 ments of the crocodile, the heart of the hare, the blood of the tortoise, 

 and the testicles of tbe wild boar. (Coel. AureL, ' De Morb. Chron.,' 

 lib. i., cap. 4, p. 322.) Several authors make mention of some other pre- 

 parations and antidotes, which bear his name, and which are scarcely 

 worth more than those above mentioned. (Celsus, * De Medic.,' lib. v., 

 cap. 28, sect. 17, p. 307; Aetius, tetrab. ii., serm. ii., cap. 96, col. 296; 

 Nicolaus Myrepaus, ' Antidot.,' sect, i., cap. 66, col. 375.) 



SERAPION, a Syrian physician, called by Wiistenfeld (' Gesch. der 

 Arab. Aerzte '), YAHIA IBN SERAPION BEN IBRAHIM, and commonly 

 called Serapion Senior, to distinguish him from another physician of 

 the same name, with whom he is sometimes confounded. Nothing is 

 known of the events of his life, and the century in which he lived is 

 only to be calculated from his being quoted by Rhazes, who died 

 probably A.n. 320 (A.D. 932). We are told by the anonymous author 

 of the 'Arab. Philosoph. Biblioth.,' quoted by Casiri ('Biblioth. 

 Arabico-Hisp. Escur.,' torn, i., p. 261), that "duo de Re Medica edidit 

 volumina, id est Collectionem Magnam Libris XII., et Collectionem 

 Pan-am Libris VII. comprehcnsam, utramque Syriace : quam in 

 Arabicum Scrmonem convertere Musa Ben Abrahim Alhodaithi, et 

 Ben Bahlul." We possess two works that bear his name ; one still in 



manuscript, called ' Aphorism! Magni Moment! de Medicina Practica' 

 (Uri, ' Catal. Codd. MSS. Orient., Biblioth. Bodl.,' No. 598) ; the other, 

 entitled 'Kuundsh' (a word probably derived from a Syrian one, 

 which means to collect), has been translated into Latin, and published 

 under the various names, 'Pandectse,' 'Aggregator,' 'Breviarium,' 

 'Practica,' and ' Therapeutica Methodus.' Dr. Russell (Append, to 

 ' Nat. Hist, of Aleppo ') says that the only manuscript of this work that 

 he had seen in the European catalogues was that of the Escurial 

 (Cod. 814), which however contains only a small part of it ; and that 

 he had never met with any of this author's works in the East. The 

 object of the work is to collect and put together in an abridged form 

 the opinions of the Greek and Arabic physicians concerning diseases 

 and their treatment. " As Haly Abbas (' Lib. Reg.,' Prol.) remarks," 

 says Mr. Adams (Appendix to Barker's ed. of Lempriere, London, 

 1838), "he treats of the cure of diseases solely as practicable by medi- 

 cine and diet, and has entirely omitted hygiene aud operative surgery. 

 The list of the complaints of which he treats is far less complete than 

 those of Rhases, Haly, and Avicenna, and in particular it is remarkable 

 that he makes no mention of elephantiasis, aneurism, and diseases of 

 the chest aud genital organs ; his description of Small-Pox, as further 

 stated by Haly, is very incomplete." Dr. Freind remarks (' Hist, of 

 Physic,' vol. ii., p. 42), that he " often transcribes out of Alexander 

 Trallianus, an author with whom few of the other Arabic writers seem 

 to have been much acquainted." A fuller account of Serapion's medical 

 opinions may be seen in Freind (loc. cit.), Haller ('Biblioth. Med. Pract.,' 

 torn, i., p. 443), and Sprengel (' Hist, de la Med.,' torn, ii., p. 277). 



The first edition of his work mentioned by Choulant (' Handbuch 

 der Biicherkunde fur die Aeltere Medicin') is the translation by 

 Gerardus Cremonensis, printed in black letter in double columns, 

 folio, Venet., 1479, by Rainaldus Noviomagensis Alemannus, with the 

 title, 'Jo. fil. Serapionis Opera, s. Breviarium etc. et (Serapionis 

 Junioris) Liber Aggregatus in Medicinis Simplicibus ex transl. Sim. 

 Januensis interprete Abraam Judseo Tortuosiensi, etc.' The last edition 

 mentioned by Choulant is a reprint of the translation of Andreas 

 Alpagus (which was first published in folio, Ferrar., 1488), Venet., 

 folio, 1550, with the title, 'Jo. fil. Serapionis Practica,' &c., and with 

 the work of the younger Serapion in the same volume. Albanus 

 Torinus published an edition (Basil., folio, 1543), with the title, ' Jani 

 Damasceni Therapeutica Methodi Lib. VII.,' &c., which alteration of the 

 author's name has increased the confusion that already existed respect- 

 ing him. An extract from his work is printed in Fernel's Collection of 

 the Greek, Latin, and Arabic writers 'De Febribus,' Venet., foL, 1576. 



SERAPION, commonly called Serapion Junior, to distinguish him 

 from the preceding, an Arabian physician of whom nothing is known. 

 He must certainly have lived after Ibn Wafid (commonly called Alben- 

 gnefit or Abenguefit), since he quotes him, and as that author died 

 A.H. 460 (A.D. 1068), Serapiou may perhaps be placed at the end of 

 the 5th century after the Hegira, or the llth after Christ. There 

 remains a work by him, 'De Simplicibus Medicameutis,' of which there 

 is an Arabic manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Uri, 

 ' Catal. MSS. Orient.,' No. 597), but which has only been published in 

 a Latin translation. " This is," says Mr. Adams (Appendix to Barker's 

 Lempriere, London, 1838), "one of the most important works of 

 Arabic medical literature, and contains a useful compendium of all the 

 most interesting information on this head in the writings of Dioscorides 

 and Galen, with some additional remarks by himself and the older 

 Arabic authorities; the most original part of it is the ' Introduction,' 

 in which he classifies substances according to their medicinal pro-, 

 perties, and gives an ingenious dissertation on their actions. On the 

 whole, he has made very few additions to the articles in the Materia 

 Medica of the Greeks, and indeed sometimes gives to his Grecian 

 masters credit for the discovery of certain medicinal substances, for 

 which it would rather appear that we are indebted to his countrymen. 

 Thus, in his chapter on Serina, he quotes Paulus yEgineta, but seem- 

 ingly by mistake, for no account of this purgative is now to be found 

 in the works of the latter. Where all is mostly unexceptionable, and 

 there is nothing remarkably original, it is difficult to point o\it any 

 subject which it handled in a more interesting manner than the others. 

 I would refer however to his account of squills: he says that the 

 Yinum scilliticum is given as a laxative in fevers, and in dropsy as a 

 diuretic, to remedy indigestion, for jaundice and 'tormina' of the 

 belly, for an old cough, asthma, and spitting of blood, and for cleansing 

 the breast of gross humours ; and forbids the use of it when there is 

 an ulcer in an internal organ." There are however abundant proofs of 

 his credulity and love of the marvellous in his accounts of the bezoar 

 (cap. 396, p. 188, a,), diamond (cap. 391, p. 187, b.), asphaltus (cap. 

 177, p. 147, a.), &c. "Amber," says he (cap. 196, p. 150), "grows in 

 the sea like mushrooms on land. In China there are some persons 

 solely engaged in fishing for this substance. That which floats on tho 

 sea is swallowed by the whale, and quickly causes its death. When 

 the animal's body is opened, the best amber is found near the vertebral 

 column, and the worst in the stomach." 



The first edition of this work mentioned by Choulan (' Handbuch 

 der Biicherkunde fiir die Aeltere Medicin ') was published at Milan, 

 folio, 1473, in black letter, with the title 'Liber Serapionis aggregatus 

 in Medicinis Simplicibus, translatio Simonis Januensis interprete Abra- 

 ham Judceo Tortuosiensi de Arabico in Latinum.' The last edition 

 mentioned by him was published at Venice, folio, 1552, with the title 



