De morbis acutis et chronicis
De morbis acutis et chronicis is a medical script in Latin that Caelius Aurelianus created at the beginning of the 5th century. Through the presentation of the healing methods of numerous doctors from previous centuries, it offers valuable insights into the healing art of antiquity .
Sources and position in the ancient medical literature
In his work, Caelius Aurelianus repeatedly mentions Soranos , who worked 300 years earlier, as his teacher and informant. In the foreword he states that his colleagues who no longer speak Greek will be able to learn Greek medicine. It is therefore assumed that it is a - albeit free - translation of books by Sorano.
The language
The Latin of Caelius Aurelianus is no longer that of republican Rome . However, no African Latin dialect has been developed, as was assumed for a while. Rather, one has to speak of a well-educated Latin with concessions to the late Latin vernacular , individual vulgarisms and Greek technical terms. So z. B. anagargarisma (= gargle) taken from the Greek. There are new word formations, such as recorporativus (belonging to the restoration of the body). New grammatical structures also appear.
content
A distinction is made between 'acute' and 'chronic' diseases. In the foreword to chronic illnesses, he explains that chronic illnesses are protracted ailments that require greater medical skill than acute ones, which may also end by themselves.
The diseases are always presented according to the same scheme: the description of the diseases with their symptoms , possibly also differentiation from other diseases and causes of the disease, are followed by the treatment recommendations. This is usually followed by a detailed condemnation of the treatment of other doctors.
The diseases
About 60 ailments are presented. The "diseases" range from parasite infestation (e.g. phthiriasis = lice disease , cm, IV, 2), symptoms (e.g. tussicula = cough, cm, II, 8), symptom groups (e.g. stomachicus = stomach sick, cm, III, 2) to diseases in the clinical sense (e.g. epilepsia). Often Caelius Aurelianus keeps the Greek name, so he speaks of catarrh , apoplexia . Sometimes it is bilingual (e.g. hydrophobia = aquifuga or morsus canis rapidi = rabies , am, III, 9). Many names have survived to this day, but mostly do not correspond exactly to the meaning at that time. The diseases are defined, classified according to the two characteristics "tightening (= strictura)" and "loosening (= solutio)" and by symptoms such as fever, sweating, loss of appetite and the like. Ä. Described.
The healing methods
The treatment follows the principles of the school of methodologists . The positioning of the sick is detailed, the diet, fasting, bloodletting , carrying around, etc. The instructions are very precise. So it says in cm IV, 3 about the goat milk to be given:
lac summendum ex agresti pastu perfectum. etenim in ciuitat ... sed aquatum faciant..ex caprea, quae lentisci pascua uel murtae aut rubi aut vitis foliis ...
One should take milk from the country pasture ... Because those kept in the city give watery milk ... The goats should be fed with mastic , Myrtle, blackberry, vine leaves ...
The cupping head (= cucurbitta ) and the enema (= clister ) are used in numerous treatments ; even nutrition through the enema (the nurturing enema) is described (cm II, 37). Caelius Aurelianus also has extensive pharmaceutical knowledge. Surgical interventions are mentioned seldom and only negatively; even pulling a painful tooth is seen negatively (cm, II, 4).
The doctors
In addition to Soranos, Caelius Aurelianus quotes about 50 doctors from Hippocrates of Kos to Eudemus and Lysias who were working a few generations before Soranos at the time of Tiberius . Most often he quotes Asklepiades of Bithynia , Diocles of Karystus , Erasistratos , Herakleides of Taranto , Praxagoras of Kos and Themison of Laodikeia .
After recommending the treatment for a disease, the author often indulges in a detailed criticism of his colleagues. That he is Herakleides, who adheres to the deviant school of empiricists , e.g. B. blamed for the treatment of pleurisy is not surprising. But he also accuses the methodologist Themison and even Hippocrates of treatment errors in this and other diseases (on II, 19, 23, 24).
Tradition and text output
Cassiodorus also names Caelius Aurelianus. After that he is more and more forgotten, whereas the name Soranos appears again and again in the early Middle Ages . Only one manuscript of the books has survived in Lorsch Abbey . This was lost after it was published by Johannes Sichard in 1529 and printed by Henricus Petrus in Basel . Since only small fragments of handwritten documents have survived, later editions proved difficult, and 'improvements' were often suggested. In 1950 Israël Edward Drabkin brought out an edition with an English parallel translation , in 1990 the edition by Gerhard Bendz appeared with the translation by Ingeborg Pape.
Text editions and translations
- Caelius Aurelianus: Celerum passionum libri III (= De morbis acutis); Tardarum passionum libri V (= De morbis diuturnis). Acute Diseases, Book I-III, Chronic Diseases, Book IV. Edited by Gerhard Bendz and translated into German by Ingeborg Pape, 2 volumes, Berlin 1990 (= Corpus Medicorum Latinorum , VI.1).
- Caelius Aurelianus: On acute diseases and on chronic diseases. Edited and translated by Israel E. Drabkin, Chicago 1950.
literature
- Valentin Rose : Anecdota Graeca et Graecolatina , Book 2, Berlin, 1870.
- Theodor Meyer-Steineg: The medical system of methodologists , Jena 1916.
- Robert Fuchs: History of medicine among the Greeks , in: Max Neuberger / Julius Pagel: Handbook of the history of medicine, Hildesheim, New York 1971.
- Alf Önnerfors : The medical Latin from Celsus to Cassius Felix , in: Rise and decline of the Roman world , Volume II 37, 1, de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1993.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Robert Fuchs: History of the healing arts among the Greeks, 32nd The Methodists
- ^ Alf Önnerfors: The medical Latin from Celsus to Cassius Felix, X. Caelius Aurelianus.
- ^ Pschyrembel
- ^ Theodor Meyer-Steineg: The medical system of the methodologist, V. Caelius Aurelianus.
- ↑ Cassiodorus: Institutiones divinarum et saecularium litterarum , Book I, XXXI, (2)
- ↑ Valentin Rose: Anecdota Graeca et Graecolatina, From the Medicinales Responsiones of Caelius Aurelianus