SCR 



wrote a treatife " De Compofitione Medicamentorum," 

 which is very often quoted by Galen, and was " mcfl im- 

 pudently pillaged and tranfcribed" by Marcellus the em- 

 piric, accordmg to Dr. Freind. This work Scribonius de- 

 dicated to Julius Calliftius, the moft favoured of all the 

 freed-men of the emperor ; and he fpeaks of Mefl'aUna and 

 Claudius in a way which evinces that they were living at that 

 time. After giving the formula of a dentifrice, he adds, 

 " Meflalina Dei noftri Casfaris hoc utitur." Great faith 

 was, in that age, impofed in particular formulae, or combi- 

 nations of drugs, which were fuppofed to pofiefs peculiar 

 powrers of healing ; and it was the praftice of many phy- 

 iicians to keep their compofitions fecret. Scribonius, how- 

 ever, publilhed his collection, and exprefied great confi- 

 dence in their efficacy ; but many of them are trifling and 

 fovnided in fuperllition, and his praftice feems to have been 

 purely cm.pirical. His language, too, is fo much inferior in 

 point of elegance to that of Celfus, who had written but a 

 Ihort time before him, and to the general character which 

 the language Hill maintained in the reign of Claudius, that 

 lome learned men have fuppofed that Scribonius wrote his 

 work in Greek, and that it was tranflated into the Latin 

 drefs, in which it has defcended to us, by fome later hand. 

 Rhodius, however, and fome others, have Ihewn that his 

 language has the air of originality ; and it is remarked, that 

 in his dedication to Calliftius, he thanks the favourite for 

 having feized the opportunity of ferving him by prefenting 

 his medical works, turitten in Lntin, to the emperor : 

 " Scripta mea Latina medicinalia," It is remarkable, in- 

 deed, that two men, living about the fame time, flioidd 

 write their native language fo differently as Celfus and 

 Scribonius ; but the latter was probably a man of inferior 

 education. The farcafm of Fi"eindis, however, not far from 

 the truth. " Scribonius Largus, who cannot," he favs, 

 " well be reckoned any more than a mere empiric, though 

 he wrote in tlie time of the iiril Claudius, when the Roman 

 language was in lome tolerable degree of purity, ought, as 

 I may lay, to be tranflated into Latin, in order to be un- 

 dcrltood by thofe who are converfant only witli the cladics 

 of that age." The treatife of Scribonius has been feveral 

 times reprinted, and (lands among the " Medicos Artis Prin- 

 cipes" of Henry Stephens, 1567. See Freind's Hillory 

 of Medicine, vol. i. Sprengel, Gelchichte der Arznei- 

 kunde, ii. Thcil. Le Clerc, Hift. de la Medecine, p. 3. 



SCRINLl, in Geography, a river of France, which runs 

 into the Po, five miles N. of Tortona. 



SCRIPTORIUM, a particular apartment in monaf- 

 terie-;, where writers were employed in tranlcribing copies 

 of works intended for prefervation ; and to their labour tiie 

 caufe of literfiture has been much indebted. 



SCRIPTORIUS Calamus. See Calamus. 



SCRIPTIIARY, among the Jews. See CARArrE>i. 



SCRiPTULUM, among the Romans, llie twenty- 

 fourth part of an ounce, and equal to two oboli. See 

 OnoLus. 



SCRIPTULUS, a word ufed by fome inftcad oi ftni- 

 puliu, a fcrnple, or weight of twenty grains. 



SCRIPTURA, in yfrilifjuity, the name of the revenue 

 which the Roman people raifed upon the paiture-lands, of 

 which the [iroperty was in the commonwealth, and which 

 was farmed to particular pcrfons. It was fo called, becaule 

 tiie number of cattle, which individuals were to put into 

 thefe palluragcs, was regiftered ; and it was by that num- 

 ber the yearly fums which they engaged to i)ay were regu- 

 lated. 



SCRIPTURE, or Scriptures. See Bim.F.. 



The colleftion of trafts, hys the learned and juftlv 

 Vol. XXXII. 



SCR 



efteemed fir William Jones, in his " eighth anniverfary dif- 

 courfe," (Works, vol. iii. p. 183, 8vo.) which we call 

 from their excellence " the fcriptures," contains, inde- 

 pendently of a divine origin, more true fublimity, more ex- 

 quifite beauty, purer morality, more important hiftory, and 

 finer ftrains both of poetry and eloquence, than could be col- 

 lefted within the fame compafs from all other books that 

 were ever compcfed in any age or idiom. The two parts, of 

 which' the fcriptures confill, are connedcd by a chain of 

 compofitions, which bear no refemblance in form or (lyle to 

 any that can be produced from the (lores of Grecian, Indian, 

 Perfian, or even Arabian learning ; the antiquity of thefe 

 compofitions no man doubts ; and the unilrained appli- 

 cation of them to events long fubfequent to their publication, 

 is a folid ground of behef, that they were genuine pre- 

 diftions, and confequently infpired. Our author, in a 

 fubfequent difcourfe, adds, that on the fuppoCtion, that 

 the firlt eleven chapters of the book, which it is thought 

 proper to call " Genefis," are merely a preface to the oldeft. 

 civil hiftory now extant, we fee the truth of them confirmed 

 by antecedent reafoning, and by evidence, in part highly 

 probable, and in part certain ; but the conneaion of the Mo- 

 Ja'ic hiftory with that of the Gofpel, by a chain of fubhme 

 prediftions, unqueftionably ancient, and apparently ful- 

 filled, muft induce us to think the Hebrew narrative more 

 than human in its origin, and confequently true in every fub- 

 ttantial part of it, though poffibly cxprelled in figurative 

 language ; as many learned and pious men have believed, and 

 as the moft pious may believe without injury, and perhaps 

 with advantage, to the caufe of revealed religion. If Mofes 

 then, fubjoins our author, was endowed with fupernatural 

 knowledge, it is no longer probable only, but abfolutely 

 certain, that the whole race of men proceeded from Iran, 

 or from a centre, whence they migrated at firft in their great 

 colonics (W2. Indian, Arabian, and Tartarian) ; and that 

 thefe three branches grew from a common ftock, which had 

 been miraculoiifly prefcrved in a general convulfion and ia- 

 undation of this globe. 



ScRlPTUltE, Canon of. See Canon'. 



Sdui'TUKE, Scoffing, l^c. at, is plinifhable by fine and 

 imprifonment. See Blasphemy. 



SC RIVEN, in Geography, a county of America, in the 

 ftate of Georgia, containing 4477 inhabitants. Its chief 

 town is Jackfon-borough, containing 20 inhabitants. 



SCRIVENER, one who lends money out at intereft ; it 

 is alfo ufed for one wlio draws contrafts. 



Scriveners are mentioned in the ftatute againft ufury and 

 exccffive intereft of money. (12 Ann. cap. 6.) If a fcri- 

 vener is entruftcd with a bond, he may receive the intereft ; 

 and if he fails, the obligee fliall bear the lofs ; and fo it is if 

 he receive the principal, and deliver up the bond ; for being 

 entrufted with the fecunty itlelf, it (hall be prelumed ho is 

 entrufted with the power to receive the principal and intereft j 

 and the giving up the bond on payment of the money is a 

 difcharge thenof; but if a fcrivcncr be entrufted with a 

 mortgage-deed, he hath only authority to receive the in- 

 tercft, not the principal ) the giving up the deed in this 

 cafe not being fufficient to rellore the eftate, but there mutt 

 be a re-coiivc)ance, &c. Decreed in Chan. Hill. 7 Ann. 

 I Salk. 157. 



SCRIVERIUS, Peter, in Biography, .m cftimable 

 man of letters, was born at Haerlem in 1576. He wa« 

 educated firft at Amfterdam, where he had an uncle in the 

 magiftracy, and then at Lcyden, with a view to the pro- 

 feffion of the law, but having a decided turn for literature, 

 he married and fixed his refidence at Lcyden, devoting hii 

 time to reading and writing. He became the editor ot 

 O many 



