Aulus Cornelius Celsus
25 B.C.-A.D. 50
Roman Medical Writer
Aulus Cornelius Celsus has been called the first important medical historian and one of the greatest Roman medical writers, as well as the creator of scientific Latin. He seems to have written an encyclopaedia dealing with agriculture,the art of warfare, rhetoric, philosophy, law, and medicine, but only the treatise known as De medicina (On medicine) survived. Today De medicina is universally regarded as an invaluable medical classic.
Yet almost nothing is known about the life of Celsus. Even his status as author of De medicina has been questioned. Because Celsus wrote in Latin, during an era in which Greek was considered the language of medicine and scholarship, Roman and medieval scholars ignored his work. In the fifteenth century two copies of De medicina were discovered. To Renaissance scholars, Celsus represented a pure source of first-century Latin grammar and medical philosophy, uncorrupted by medieval copyists. Therefore, De medicina was among the first medical works to be widely published after the introduction of the printing press.
The historical portion of De medicina is of great importance today because it is the primary or only source of much of what is now known about Hellenistic medicine and Alexandrian anatomy and surgery. De medicina is divided into three parts, according to the type of treatment appropriate to various diseases, that is, dietetic, pharmaceutical, and surgical. De medicina contains some of the earliest accounts of heart disease, insanity, and the use of ligatures to control bleeding. Celsus also offered excellent descriptions of hydrotherapy and operation for the removal of bladder stones (lateral lithotomy).
Historians are divided as to whether Celsus actually wrote or merely plagiarized the materials in De medicina. Some scholars say that Celsus was simply a compiler or translator, but others argue that the quality of the text and the display of critical judgment about medicine and surgery make this very unlikely. Indeed, many Renaissance scholars venerated Celsus as a master of organization, clarity, and style. It is known, however, that his contemporaries considered Celsus a man of quite modest talents. It is unlikely, given Roman customs, that Celsus would have been a professional physician. Traditionally, Roman landlords were expected to assume responsibility for the medical care of the sick on their estates. Generally this simply meant knowing enough about medicine to supervise the women or slaves who carried out the menial tasks actually associated with treating the sick. Like other Romans, Celsus asserted that physicians had been unnecessary in ancient Rome. The Greek art of medicine became a necessity only after indolence, luxury, and other Greek influences that led to illness had infiltrated Roman society.
After the death of Hippocrates (460?-377? B.C.), Greek medicine fragmented into various competing sects, such as the methodists, dogmatists, pneumatists, and empiricists. Without the analysis provided by Celsus, the origins and ideas peculiar to the sects that flourished in his time would be totally obscure. Celsus concluded that no sect was wholly right or wrong. Although medical practice primarily involved the selection of appropriate drugs, Celsus argued that medical practitioners must also master human anatomy and the art of surgery. While rejecting the Greek concept of the physician as necessary guide to proper regimen throughout life, Celsus offered a great deal of advice about healthful living. The best prescription for a healthy life, Celsus argued, was variety and balance, proper rest and exercise, and avoidance of a self-indulgent obsession with medical advice.
Surgery, according to Celsus, should be the most satisfying field for the practitioner because the surgeon knew that a cure was the result of his skill, not mysterious forces, accident, or good fortune. The surgeon must protect his patient from hemorrhage and infection by attention to cleanliness. Celsus defined the four cardinal signs of inflammation: calor, rubor, dolor, and tumor (heat, redness, pain, and swelling). He described surgical tools, techniques, and operations that were unknown to his Hippocratic predecessors, such as the use of the ligature for torn blood vessels, special spoons and dilators to remove barbed arrows from wounds, plastic surgery, and so forth.
This is the complete article, containing 671 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
