H4 : PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO l6g6. 



private libraries of France and otiier countries, have given occasion to many 

 learned critics to publish their different sentiments upon them. The great 

 Isaac Casaubon did not know them ; quoting some fragments of this Julius 

 Celsus, as select obscure MSS. sent him by Bongarsius, though the author 

 had been frequently mentioned above 300 years before, by Vincentius, Walter 

 Burleigh, Eybbius, Johannes Magnus, and printed in a black letter, with ab- 

 breviations, in the year 1473. Gerard Vossius was the first who cleared this 

 point, and said, that many things in Caesar's Commentaries miglit be illustrated 

 by this history of Celsus, whose name occurred very frequently in the fronts 

 and ends of tlie ancient manuscripts of Cassar's works ; it being the custom of 

 those times to affix the testimony and approbation of critics, and other learned 

 men, to most of the old manuscripts, in order to show they were authentic, 

 being read and examined by such and such scholars of known integrity and 

 abilities : this caused the more barbarous ages to think those names to be the 

 true authors, and to cite them as such ; so Julius Celsus is much honoured by 

 the many quotations made in this manner, and is taken by some modern critics 

 for Caesar himself. 



The Commentaries here published, have been much sought after, though in 

 vain, by some of the greatest men in matters of literature ; as Gesner, Nicholas 

 Heinsius, M. Bigot, M. Godin, Dr. Francis Bernard, and others; so that a 

 single copy of them has been sold for lOOl. sterling: yet we must confess, 

 that we are ignorant of the time in which the author of these Commentaries 

 flourished ; though it is probable he is much more ancient than 4 or 500 years, 

 in which Graevius thinks fit to place him, from the manner of his style, which 

 seems to be above the common vein of the cloister, or the genius of that age. 

 Some passages may have been added by readers or copyists, who frequently 

 used to interpolate and corrupt the purest and best authors. 



The 1st edit, was in 1473 ; but, by what fate I know not, it soon vanished, 

 and became unknown, and even lost to ihe most industrious searches, till 

 Vossius, in his Instit. Orator, and De Histor. Lat. illustrated its history, and 

 set it in its true light; which incited the curiosity of several great men in vain, 

 till the generosity of Grasvius brought it forth in a better form. 



An Anatomical Account of some remarkable Things, found on the Dissection of 

 a f'Fojnan, ivho died of the Dropsy, after the Paracentesis was perjormed; 

 with some Re/lections on the Causes of Dropsy. By Dr. Charles Preston. 

 N° 223, p. 330. 



In the dissection of Mad. Vaillant, by M. Du Linier, the liver was found 

 very white without, but red within ; the epiploon extremely dried, the stomach 



