Celsus : a bibliographical demonstration in the library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 3rd March, 1892 / by James Finlayson.

  • Finlayson, James, 1840-1906.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Celsus : a bibliographical demonstration in the library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 3rd March, 1892 / by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    CELSUS: A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DEMONSTRATION, At one of our recent meetings here I showed you the writings of Hippocrates,* the date of whose death is fixed about 357 B.C.; and at the following demonstration I took up, as the next greatest name in medical history, the writings of Galen,+ who died about 200 a.d. In proceeding now to the works of Celsus, I am going back chronologically, for, as will be shown by and by, there is every reason to believe that Celsus flourished about the very beginning of the Christian era. Celsus seems to have had in his own time, and he certainly has had during the last three or four hundred years, a great reputation as a medical writer. This reputation is based on the purity of his Latin; on the clearness and conciseness of his style; and on the value of the matter contained in his treatise. Eulogistic epithets have been heaped on him. He has been called the Cicero of Medicine, although his concise style has been regarded by many as being rather the reverse of that of the great orator and philosopher, and it has been suggested that the comparison with Cicero should rather be kept for Galen, with his voluminous writings, his controversial spirit, and his personal vanity. The great scholar, Isaac Casaubon, whose notes enrich Almeloveen's edition of Celsus, * See Glasgow Medical Journal, April, 1892. t See British Medical Journal, 1892, vol. i, ])p. 573, 730, 771.