BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY; CONTAINING An Historical and Critical ACCOUNT OF THE LIVES and WRITINGS OF THE Most Eminent Perfons In every NATION; Particularly the BRITISH and IRISH; From the earliest Accounts of Time to the present Period. WHEREIN Their remarkable ACTIONS or SUFFERINGS, VOL. III. LONDON: Printed for T. OSBORNE, J. WHISTON and B. WHITE, AN Univerfal, Hiftorical, and Literary DICTIONARY. C C. ELIUS AURELIANUS, or, as fome have called him, Lucius Cælius Arianus, an ancient physician, and the only one of the fect of the methodifts, of whom we have any remains, was of Sicca, a town of Numidia, in Africa. This we learn from the elder Pliny; and we might almoft have collected it, without any information at all, from his ftile, which is very barbarous, and much refembling that of the African writers. It is half Greek, half Latin, harsh, and difficult: yet ftrong, mafculine, full of good fenfe, and valuable for the matter it contains. It is frequently very acute and smart, especially where he expofes the errors of other physicians; and always nervous. What age Cælius Aurelianus flourished in, we cannot determine, there being fo profound a filence about it amongst the ancients: but it is very probable, that he lived before Galen, fince it is not conceivable, that he should mention, as he does, all the phyficians before him, great as well as fmall, and yet not make the least mention of Galen. He was not only a careful imitator of Soranus, but also a strenuous advocate for him. He had read over very diligently the ancient phyficians of all the fects; and we are obliged to him for the knowledge of many dogmas, which are not to be found but in his books De ccleribus & tardis paffionibus. The best edition of these books is that published at AmfterVOL. III. B dam |