JE S C 



loft his dog, and one of his fiic-goats, founl thorn on n 

 neighbouring mountain, near a child who fhone with an 

 extraordinary rcfplendence, and whom the goat i'lickled, 

 and the dog guarded. This child was jEfculapins. As 

 he advanced in age and wifdom, he dedicated his days to 

 the relief of the unhappy. The mod dangerous wounds 

 and maladies yielded to liis operations, his remedies, his 

 liannonious fongs, and the magical words which he 

 employed. Tiie gods, it is faid, pardoned him his fucceis ; 

 hut as he dared to call the dead to life, Pluto com- 

 plained, and Jnpiter ilruck him dead with a thunder-bolt. 

 See Pindar. Pyth. 1. iii. v. lo. 9;. p. 191^. 201. Ed. Weft 

 and Weliled. Diod. Sicul. 1. iv. torn. i. p. 315. I'-d. AN'tf- 

 fel. Plin. H. N. 1. 29. torn. ii. p. 493. 



It is added, that iElculapius was the difcipl ■ of Chiron, 

 and having been entrullcd with the fecrets of his mailer, 

 he conmiuniciited them to his fons Machaon and Po- 

 dalirius, who_ after his death reigned over a fmall city 

 in Tht'lTLily. During the liege of Troy, they figna- 

 hzed themfelves by tlieir courage in the field of battle, 

 and by their (l^ill in the treatment of wounds (Homer II. 

 1. ii. V. 730. 1. iv. V. Z19. 1. ix. v. 832.), the only part of 

 the medical art that was much known in thofe remote ages. 

 Tlie children of Machaon, who was killed under the walls 

 of Troy, followed the profcdion of their father, and fet- 

 tled in the country'. They raifed altars to their grandfa- 

 ther, and merited the fame honours themfelves by the fer- 

 v-ices which they rendered to the human race. See Paufa- 

 nias, 1. ii. c. II. p. 136. c. 23. p. 163. c. 26. p. 171. and 

 172. Ed. Kuhnii. 



The founder of fo refpeftable a familv foon became the 

 objeft of public veneration, though his advancement to the 

 rank of gods mud have been poilerior to the time of Ho- 

 mer, who only fpeaks of him as a fimple individual. In 

 procefs of time divine honours were evei"v where paid to 

 him. At Epidaurus he had a famous temple, in which his 

 ftatue, made of gold and ivory, by Thrai'ymedes of Paros, 

 ^\'as placed on a throne of the fame materials. It was 

 cro«'ned with rays with a knotty dick in one hand, and 

 ftretching out the other arm over a fci'pent, which feemed 

 to raife itfelf up in order to reach it ; and a dog lay at 

 his feet. The Epidaurians inditiited fedivrlls and games, 

 which were at fird annually, (Plat, in Ion. torn. i. p. 530. 

 Ed. Serrani.) and afterwards once in five years celebrated 

 in honour ot him. From Epidamais his wordiip pafTed to 

 the other cities of Greece, and even to diftant countries. 

 In all his temples votive tablets were hung up, on which 

 were recorded the difeafes cured by his affidance. This 

 god was brought to Rome, by order of Apollo, when a 

 peftilence raged in that city, in the times of the republic, 

 under die confulate of Podhumus Megellus and C. Junius 

 Brutus. About the year of Rome 462, the Sibylline 

 books were confulted, and an embaffy was appointed to 

 bring the god from Epidaurus to Rome, who is faid to 

 liave ilolen away from his old wordiippers under the form of 

 a ferpent ; and on his arrival, to the great joy of the people, 

 the plague foon ceafed. On this occafion altars were erefted 

 Jong the banks of the Tiber, and numerous facrifices were 

 offered to the new deity. The Romans defigned to ereft a 

 temple in honour of him, witliin the walls of the city ; but 

 the god who redded in the vicinity of Epidaurus, and not 

 within the citv, is faid to have chofen his abode in the 

 midd of the Tiber, on an idand form.ed in the infancy of 

 the republic by draw, trees, fand, and the rubbilh of the city. 

 Thither the ferpent retired, and from that time the idand 

 was called the iflaiul of jEfculapins, and a temple was 

 creeled in the form, of a diipr to which, as to the temple of 



iE S C 



tlie god of health, the common people frequently repaired. 

 The Tick were relJored to health, and in token of gratitude 

 offered a cock to yKfculapius. Of this temple there were 

 fome remains in the r6th century, near tlie churcli of St. 

 Bartholomew, in the idand of the Tiber. From this time 

 jElculapius was honoured at Rome <i3 one of the chief of 

 their made gods. On coins, &c. he is crowned with laurel, 

 in token of liis defcent from Apollo, and he is reprefentcd 

 with a mild afpeft, and with hair and beard not unhke 

 thole of the mild Jupiter : his right arm is bare, in order to 

 denote his readinefs for any operation ; his left holds a 

 dick, with a ferpent twided round it. He is fomctimes 

 feen accompanied by his wife Hygeia or health, with their 

 fon Tclefphonis, or convalcfccnce, between them. The dog 

 and cock have been reputed faered to tlvis deity on account 

 of their vigilance ; and the raven for his forecad. Statius, 

 lib. iii. Sylv. iv. v. 25. Ovid. Met. 1. xv. tom. ii. p. io6y. 

 Ed. Burman. Sueton. in Claud, tom. i. p. 6X6. Ed. Pitifc. 

 — Liv. Epitom. lib. xi. tom. iii. p. 197. Ed. Burman. — 

 Pint. QuKd. Rom. tom. ii. p. 286. — Paufan. Corinth. 

 1. ii. p. 171. Achaic. 1. vii. p. 592, &c. Ed. Kuhnii. — Ci- 

 cero, (de Nat. Deor. 1. iii. c. 22. tom. ii. p. 635. Ed Olivet.) 

 mentions three deities called iEfculapius ; the fird the fon 

 of Apollo, worihipped in Arcadia, who invented the probe 

 and bandages for wounds ; the fccond, the brother of the 

 fecond Mercuiy, killed by lightning ; and the third, the fon 

 of Arfippus and Arfinoe, who firft difcovered the art of 

 tooth-drawing and pnrging. 



Thofe who trace the origin of medicine, as well as the 

 other arts and feiences, to the Egyptians, afcribe the in- 

 vention of it to Toforthrus or Seforthms, a king of Mem- 

 phis, and the fecond of the third dynady of Manetho, who 

 was called /Efculapius on account of his great llvill in that 

 art. This prince was much more ancient tlian the Grecian 

 jEfculapius, and though Africanus places him fome years 

 after Athothis, the fucceffor of Menes, fuppofed to be the 

 fame with Thoth, or the fird Hermes, yet others make 

 them contemporaries, as they mud have been if this 

 jEfculapius was the fame with the fon of Sydyc and 

 the brother of the Cabiri. — Auc. Un. Hid. v. i. p. 246. 

 8vo; 



JiSCULUS, Horfi-Ch.'Jlniit, in Botany, a genus of the- 

 h'cpfcinilna monogy?na clafs and order, of the natural order of 

 tnhilatif, and the ncera of Juffieu. It is the h'tppocajiamim of 

 Tournefort, and i\\e: paina of Boerhaave. The nam.e xfcu- 

 lus is derived from efca, food ; and the old names of hippo- 

 caflamwi and cqftaiiea erjulna, from the fimiUtude of the fruit 

 to that of the chednut, and from its being given to horfes. 

 Its charafters are, that the calyx is a one-leafed, ventricofe, 

 fmall and five-toothed perianthium : the corolla confids of 

 five roundidi petals, plaited and waving about the edge, 

 fiat, fpreading, with naiTow claw^, inferted into the calyx, 

 and irregularly coloured ; the damiiia have fubulate, declin- 

 ing filaments, of the length of the corolla, and afcending 

 anthers : the pidillum is a roundidi germ, ending in a fubu- 

 late dyle ; the digma acuminate : the pericarpiiim is a 

 leathery, roundidi, three-celled, three-valved capfule : the 

 feeds are two and fub-globular. Van Royen de Necker and ■ 

 Miller obferved both hermaphrodite and male flowers in thi»- 

 gcnus. , There are three fpecies, ^l/s. the JE.. hippocqftamim, 

 or common horfe chednut ; the leaves of which are digitate, 

 with feven entire leaflets, and prickly capfiiles ; the JE.^^vu 

 or yeUow-flowered horfe-chednut, with leaves digitate with 

 five leaflets, the laminas of the corolla cordate roundidi, and 

 the claws twice the length of the calyx ; and the JE. painHf 

 or fcarlet horfe-chednut, which has flowers w-ith eight da- 

 mina, digitate leaves with five or fix ferrate leaflets, fmooth 



capfules. 



