sou 



counted among the Nomades by Ptolemy, who places them 

 between the mountains Bitigus and Difathrus. 



SOR^I, a people of Africa, in Mauritania Cxfarienfis. 

 Ptolemy. 



SORAGNA, in Geography, a town of the duchy of 

 Parma ; 13 miles N.N.W. of Parma. 



SORAMIA, in Botany, Aubl. Guian. t. 219. JufT. 

 433. See Mappia. 



SO R ANUS, in Medical H'l/Iory, one of the mod able of 

 the phyficians of the methodic feCt, according to the opinion 

 of Caelius Anrelianus, and the one who put the finilhing 

 hand to that fyltem, was a native of Ephtfus. His father's 

 name was Menander, and that of his mother Phcebe. He 

 ftudied medicine, and afterwards praftifed it at Alexandria, 

 but at length he fettled at Rome, and was in conliderable 

 repute in that metropolis in the reigns of Trajan and Adrian. 

 His charafter, indeed, feems to have been highly eflimated ; 

 for he was in favour with all parties. Even Galen, who 

 was violent in his oppofition to the Methodijls, and abufed 

 Theflalus with fome acrimony, fpeaks favourably of the 

 knowledge of Soranus, and bears his teilimony, from expe- 

 rience, to the efficacy of fome of his remedies. Soranus 

 compofed fevtral works, none of which have come down to 

 us in their proper form ; but as Cslius Aurelianus, in his 

 treatife " De Morbis Acutis et ChroMicis," every where 

 acknowledges himfelf to be a tranflator from the Greek of 

 Soranus, that work may be coiifidered as in fubftance the 

 produdlion of the latter. 



Some confufion prevails among medical writers, who mif- 

 take Soranus the Methodift for two other phyficians of the 

 fame name. The iirlt of thefe was alfo a native ot Ephc- 

 fus, but poilerior to the Methodift. He was the author of 

 a good treatife on the diieafes and organs of generation of 

 women, which was printed at Paris in IJ56, under the title 

 of " De Utero et Muliebri pudendo libellus," together with 

 fome pieces of Rufus, the Ephefian. This fragment is fo 

 accurate in point of anatomical defcnption, as to leave a re- 

 gret that the other writings of this phyfician are loft. The 

 third of thefe phyficians of the name of Soranus, was fur- 

 named Melotas, from the town in Cilicia, where he was born. 

 There is, however, no very authentic record of him extant ; 

 and the only work afcribed to him, which is entitled " Ifa- 

 goge faluberrima in Artem mcdendi," and was printed at 

 Bade, 1528, and Venice, 1547, is maintained by Vofiins 

 to be the work of a pofterior Latin writer, and not of any 

 of the three perfons named Soranus. See Le Clcrc, Hift. 

 de la Med. Eloy DiA. Hilt. 



SORARUM, in Geography, 1 town of Hindooftan, in 

 the circar of Cicacole ; 10 miles W. of Coffimcotta. 



SORAS, a town and jurifdidtion of Peru ; 60 miles S. 

 of Guamanga. — Alfo, a town of Italy, in the Feltrin ; 8 

 miles W.S.W. of Fchri. 



SORAU, or Zvouv, a town of Silefia, in the princi- 

 pality of Ratibor ; 18 miles E. of Ratibor. N. lat. 50° i'. 

 E. long. 18° 40'. 



SORAW, or Zauow, a town of I^nfatia, and one of 

 the moll ancient towns in the country, furrounded with walls 

 in the year 1207. It has manufaftures of cloth, and a con- 

 fiderable trade in linen and yarn ; 25 miles S.S.E. of 

 Guben. N. lat. 51'' 37'. E. long. 15° lo'. 



SORBA, a town of France, in the department of .Te- 

 mappe, and chief place of a canton, in the diflrift of Cortc. 

 The canton contains 2000 inhabitants. 



SORBAIT, Paul de, in Biography, a phyfician of 

 eminence, was a native of Hainault, in the I>ovv Countries. 

 Having finilhed his courfes of claffical and philolophical 

 lludies, he commenced that of medicine, which he appears 



S O K 



to have concluded by taking the degree of doftor in that 

 faculty at Vienna, where he ultimately fettled. He ob- 

 tained a high reputation for medical fkill and erudition ; and, 

 in 1655, was appointed to the principal profeflorfhip of 

 medicine in the univerfity of that metropolis, the duties of 

 which he executed with confiderable celebrity, until the year 

 1679. While he was engaged in his courfe of this year, 

 he was honoured with the appointment of phyfician to the 

 dowager emprefs Eleanor, and at the conclufion of it, rchii- 

 quilhed altogether his academical avocations. His merits 

 were ftill farther rewarded by the office of counfellor and 

 fupcrintendant of the public health, and by his elevation to 

 the dignity of a knight of the kingdom of Hungary. He 

 died in April 1691, at an advanced age. He left feveral 

 works, namely, a body of medical praftice, firft pubhfiied 

 at Nuremberg, in 1672, folio, with the title of " Univerfa 

 Medicina, tarn Theorica quam Praftica, nenipe Ifagoge 

 Inftitutionum Medicarum et Anatomicarum, S;c." This 

 work was rcpiiblilhed at Vienna in 1680, and again after 

 his death, in 1701, with the new title of " Praxeos Medicae 

 auftae, et a plurimis typi meiidis ab ipfo Auftore caiti- 

 gats, Traftatus VIT. &c." " Nova et aucta Inftitu- 

 tionum Medicarum Ifagoge," 1678, 4to. " Commentaria 

 et Controverfiae in omnes Libros Aphorifmornm Hippo- 

 cratis," 1680. In the preceding year he publidied an ac- 

 count of the plague, which had committed dreadful ravages 

 in Vienna, having deftroyed, he affirms, not lefs than 76,921 

 perfons. Its title was " Confilium Medicum, five Dialogus 

 Loimicus de Pefte Viennenfi," 1697 ; and he publilhed the 

 lame work, in German, in 1680. He was author alfo of 

 " A Treatife on Midwifery," in the German laiifruaee. 

 Eloy Did. Hift. de la Med. 



SORBECKE, in Geography, a river vehich rifes in Weit- 

 phalia, and runs into the Rhnr, about two miles S. of Ncheini. 

 SORBELLONI, in Biography, a fecond rate Italian 

 opera finger in foprano, who arrived here in 1761 ; and 

 who, from the mere fweetnefs of his voice, free from vul- 

 garity, was always much applauded. He was here at the 

 fame time as Paganini, and performed the part of ferious 

 man in the burlettas of the time. 



SORBIERE, Samuel, was born in i6r5, at St. 

 Ambroix, in the diocefe of Ufez. He was educated 

 by his maternal uncle, an eminent Calvinift ir.iniftcr at 

 Nifmes. He came to Paris in 1639, and being difgufted, 

 for fome reafons not now known, with the lludv of theo- 

 logy, he took up that of medicine. In 1642 he went to 

 Holland, where, befides purluing his medical ihuiics, he 

 materially affifted in the trandation of Camden's Britannia, 

 and alfo More's Utopia. He married, in Holl.ind, the 

 daughter of one of his townfmcn, and went to Leyden, 

 with the intention of fettling in his proteffion. In 1648 he 

 publilhed, under his own name, a French verfion of a 

 treatife of Gailendi, entitling it " Dilconrs fceptiqiie fur le 

 Pad'age du Chyle, et le Mouvement du Cocnr." Rctiniiing 

 to France in 1650, he was made principal of the college of 

 Orange, and there printed a Difcourfe on the true caule of 

 the troubles of England, and a letter on the defigns of 

 Cromwell. He conformed to the Catholic religion in 1653, 

 after which his life was chiefly fpent as an author, with a 

 view, it is faid, of attempting to obtain pcnfions, in which 

 he was very fnccefsful, having laid under contrihution car- 

 dinal Mazarin, Ixwis XIV., and the popes Alexander VII. 

 and Clement IX. He vifited England in 1664, and on his 

 return he publiftied an account of what he had obiervcd, 

 which was lo free in its ftridures, that he was for a time 

 exiled by a httre de cachet. Sorbiere was hkewile author of 

 a work entitled " Lettres et Difcours fur divers Matieres 

 2 curicufes," 



