17 
PATHOLOGY. 
This epitome is little elfe than a tranfcript from Aetius, medicines, fuch as caflia, manna, fenna, myrobalans ; 
Alexander, and Paulus. And he is fo free with the la- the two laft he fays were brought from foreign parts to 
bours of his predeceflors, that he even affumes their ex- his country, i. e. from Syria and Egypt. Senna he de- 
perience to himfelf. He gives a particular defcription of fcribes as a .fruit, by which, no doubt, he means the fame 
melancholy, and, with the air of a great praftitipner, is thing as Serapion does by the vagina, and Mefue by the 
full of the good effects he had feen himielf from the Ar- folliculus, which contains the feed; for neither thefe au- 
menian lfone, and therefore prefers it to white hellebore: thors, nor Adluarius, mention any thing of the leaves; 
he talks very fenfibly about the bite of a mad dog, and 
remarks, that when once a hydrophobia comes on, he 
never, in all his experience, knew one recover; and yet 
every word in the firft cafe is tranfcribed from Alexander, 
and in the latter from Paulus. 
Michael Pfellus lived not long after Nonus, and in- 
fcribedthe book which he put together, Concerning the 
Qualities and Virtues of Aliments, to Conftantine the 
emperor. Lambecius thinks this Conftantine is he who 
is called Monomachus, and who reigned from 1043 to 
1055; but if, according to his account, Pfellus died in 
1078, it is at lead as probable it might be Conftantine 
Ducas: and what adds to the probability is, that it ap¬ 
pears from Zonaras, he was preceptor to Michael Ducas, 
that emperor’s fon. The fame Zonaras gives this writer 
the character of a perfon wholly unfit to have the tuition 
of a prince, as being not at all qualified in any fort of 
letters; but Anna Comnena, who lived a few years after 
him, on the contrary, extols him as one who was a perfect 
mafter of philofophy, one of great natural parts, and of 
profound learning both in Greek and Chaldaic. The 
fame encomiums are bellowed upon him by Leo Allatius, 
who (by his diflertation de Pfellis) feems to be fond of 
this very name, and defcribes him as one of the firft rank 
of writers. However there is nothing to be found in 
his tfeatife which can do any author much credit; for 
it is only a collection from the elder Greek phyficians, 
who themfelves collected this part of knowledge chiefly 
from Galen, as he had done before from Diofcorides. 
He was perfecuted and dripped of every thing by Nice- 
phorus Botoniates, turned monk, and foon after died, 
very old. There are many other trails writ by this au¬ 
thor, an account of which we may read at large in Leo 
Allatius. 
And yet, though Pfellus was fuch a compiler as has 
been mentioned, Simeon of Antioch, writing upon the 
fame fubjeCl, but indeed in a very impure ftyle, copied 
moftly from him, which is the more extraordinary, fince 
the book he tranfcribed from was then frelh in every one’s 
memory: for Simeon mull have been his contemporary, 
though no doubt younger, becaufe he dedicated this trea- 
tife to Michael Ducas called Paripanaceus, who religned 
the empire in 1078, the very year in which Pfellus, as 
we are informed, died. There are many other works of 
this Simeon, particularly we owe to him the tranflation 
(out of Arabic into'-Greek) of a very fantaftical book. 
Concerning the Wifdom of the Indians, which Perzoes, 
a phyfician, collected at the defire of Chofroes, king of 
Perfia. 
ACtuarius, the fon of Zachary, fo called without doubt 
from the employment he held as chief phyfician to the 
emperor, is an author of a better character than thofe 
we have juft mentioned. He wrote feveral treatifes, in 
which occur many things worth our reading. He prac- 
tifed at Conftantinople, and, as it appears, with fome de¬ 
gree of credit; his fix books concerning the method of 
cure being compiled for the ufe of one of the chief offi¬ 
cers at court, the lord chamberlain, who was fent upon 
an embafly into the North. Fabricius by miftake makes 
ACtuarius himfelf the ambaflador. Tn thefe books, though 
he chiefly follows Galen,and very often Aetius and Paulus, 
without naming them, yet he makes ufeof whatever he finds 
to his purpofe, both in the old and modern writers, as 
well barbarians as Greeks ; and, to do him juftice, we may 
find feveral things in him not to be met with any where 
elfe. Thus, for inftance, he is the firft Greek writer who 
has mentioned or defcribed the milder forts of purging 
Vol. XIX. No. 1284. 
and, though thefe are chiefly in ufe now, yet the pods 
are fometimes made ufe of too; and, by what we can 
learn from thefe writers were probably the only part of 
fenna which was then adminiftered in phyfic. Another 
thing which we meet with in no Greek writer before Ac- 
tuarius, is the mention of diftilled liquors, as diftilled 
rofe-water, See. See. 
There are not proofs clear enough to point out to us 
the time where we might fix the precife age of this wri¬ 
ter. He is commonly, but without any good authority, 
reckoned to have lived in the eleventh century by fome, 
and in the twelfth by others. Lambecius brings him 
down as low as the beginning of the fourteenth ; but from 
his ltyle we may conclude that he was more ancient; for, 
if we compare him either with Pfellus or Simeon, he will 
appear to have a much greater purity in his diCtion; and 
indeed after 1200, we lhall fcarce meet with any writer 
but who has fome mixture of modern Greek, or fome 
barbarifms taken from other languages. 
We have brought down this feCtion to a much later pe¬ 
riod than we intended, in order to complete the hillory, 
as far as we could ground it upon any good authorities, 
of the few Greek phyficians who appeared after the time 
of Galen. There has been a prevailing opinion that no¬ 
thing was done among the ancients towards advancing 
this art, but what is comprifed in the voluminous works 
of that great man. What gave the firft rife to fuch a no, 
tion probably might be this : that becaufe thofe who fuc- 
ceeded Galen did tranferibe a great deal from him, many 
were inclined to think, without giving themfelves the 
trouble of examining and comparing their writings, that 
they did nothing elfe but tranferibe. And no editor of 
thefe authors has yet taken the leaft pains to undeceive them 
in this point, what has been left us by way of comment, 
being chiefly employed in grammatical or critical remarks, 
without any view of explaining what relates either to the 
hillory or the practice of phyfic in the time of each re- 
fpedtive writer. But we have given fome inftances, and 
more might be given, where the phyficians we have been 
fpeaking of have defcribed diftempers which were omit¬ 
ted before ; where they have taught a new way of treat¬ 
ing old ones; where they have given an account of new 
medicines, both fimple and compound, and where they 
have made large additions in the practice of furgery. 
And, if thefe be any real improvements of the art, it 
cannot be denied but that phylic was ftill making a pro- 
grefs till the year 600. As to furgery in particular, we 
may, without derogation to the more ancient writers, 
affirm, that whoever carefully looks into Aetius and 
Paulus, will be convinced that a great many improve¬ 
ments have been made in that branch of pathology 
which are not recited in Galen or any where elfe. And 
in general it may be remarked, once for all, that the wri¬ 
ters mentioned in this period, till the beginning of the 
7th century, and thofe whofe remains they have preferved, 
were not fuch collectors (which is commonly the cafe) as 
had little knowledge of the fubjedt they undertook to 
treat of, but were every one of them men of experience 
and pradtice. And, if the later Greek writers who fuc- 
ceeded, were perfons of a lower character, and made 
little advancement in the art they profelfed, it is the lefs 
to be wondered at, fince, for many centuries, univerfal 
ignorance prevailed over all the world; and it could not be 
expedited that phyfic fliould make any progrefs, when 
all other fciences and all forts of learning were almoft 
quite extindl, or that it fliould be exempt from the 
common calamities of thofe times. 
F 
II. From 
