Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/681

Rh have lived some time in or before the first century after Christ, as he is mentioned by Asclepiades Pharmacion (ap. Gal. De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. vii. 12, vol. xiii. p. 1010). He is perhaps the same person who is quoted by Andromachus (ap. Gal. De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. vii. 5, vol. xiii. p. 92) simply as Riifus. Perhaps also, if the date commonly assigned to Rufus Ephesius be correct, he is the physician quoted with approbation by Servilius Damocrates (ap. Gal. De Antid. ii. 2, vol. xiv. p. 119).

2. Rufus Ephesius, so called from the place of his birth, is said by Abu-1-faraj {Hist. Dynast p. 59) to have lived in the time of Plato ; and called by John Tzetzes {Chil. vi. Hist, 44, 300, p. 104) physician to Cleopatra. Suidas places him in the reign of Trajan, a. d. 98 — 117, which date is adopted by most modern authors, and is probably correct, as Rufus quotes Zeuxis (ap. Gal. Comment, in Hippocr. "Prorrhet. I." ii. 58. vol. xvi. p. 636) and Dioscorides (ap. Mai, Class. Auct. e Vatic. Codic. editii vol. iv. p. 11), and is himself quoted by Galen. He wrote several medical works, some of which are still extant. The principal of these is entitled, "De Appellationibits Partiuyn Corporis Humani" which consists of two unequal parts, viz. the original treatise, and an extract from it : but whether both parts belong to Rufus, is doubtful. The first and fourth books together form the ori- ginal work ; and the second and third books, the extract, by help of which several passages might be corrected. They are generally reckoned as only three books, as the second is merely the alter primus. The work itself is chiefly interesting for the in- formation it contains concerning the state of ana- tomical science at Alexandria, and before the time of Galen. Rufus considers the spleen to be absolutely useless (p. 59, ed. Clinch). He intimates that the nerves now called recurrent, were then recently discovered. " The ancients," says he (p. 42), "• called the arteries of the neck KapwrtSes or Kapai- TiKoi, because they believed, that, when they were pressed hard, the animal became sleepy and lost its voice ; but in our age it has been discovered that this accident does not proceed from pressing upon these arteries, but upon the nerves contiguous to them." He shows that the nerves proceed from the brain, and he divides them into two classes, those of sensibility and those of motion (p. 36). He considers the heart to be the seat of life, and notices that the left ventricle is smaller and thicker than the right (p. 37). This work was first pub- lished in a Latin translation by J. P. Crassus, together with Aretaeus, Venet. 1J552, 4to. The other extant works of Rufus are : an in- complete treatise,, "De Renum et Vesicae Morbis;" and A fragment, "De Medicamentis Purgantibus." These three works were first published in Greek by J. Goupyl, Paris, Bvo. 1554 ; and there is an edition (which is not of much critical value,) by J. Clinch, Greek and Latin, Lond. 1726, 4to, The last two were published in Greek, by C. F. de Matthaei, Mosq. 1806, Bvo., who supplied, from a MS. at Moscow, several pas- sages that had never before been published : this edition is now become excessively scarce. The

Latin translation by J. P. Crassus of these three works is inserted in the "Medicae Artis Principes," by H. Stephens, 1567, fol. Paris.

Besides these three works, an old Latin version of a treatise on the Gout, consisting of thirty- seven short chapters, has lately been published under the name of Rufus from a MS. in the Royal Library at Paris by M. E. Littrd, in the "Revue de Phiiologie, vol. i. (1845). The work appears to be quite genuine, as it contains two chapters (30, 31) which agree very closely with a passage attributed to Rufus by Aetius (iii. 4. 24, p. 593). A short treatise on the Pulse, 'Suvo^ls irepl Xfpvyfiuu, has been lately published in Greek, with a French translation, by M. Ch. Daremberg, 1846, 8vo. Paris, from a MS. in the Royal Library, which attributes it to Rufus, but probably without sufficient reason. It seems to be the same work which has appeared in an old Latin translation, among Galen's writings, and is called " Compendium Pulsuum Galeno ad- scriptum" [Galen, p. 214. § 69], and which Ackermann attributes to one of the Arabistae (Hist. Liter. Gal. p. clxvi.). The real author's name is unknown, and with respect to his date it can only be stated that he lived certainly after Herophilus, and probably before Galen (see M. Dai-emberg's Introd.). Some Greek fragments of the lost works of Rufus are to be found in Angelo Mai's collection of "Classici Auctores e Vaticanis Codicibus editi " (vol. iv. Rom. 1831), one of the most interesting of which is a passage respecting the plague, which ap- pears to prove, beyond all doubt, that the glandular ( or true) plague was known to the ancients some centuries earlier than was commonly supposed (see Littré, Oeuvres d'Hippocr. vol. iii. p. 4). There are also several fragments of his lost works pre- served by Galen, Oribasius, Aetius, Rhazes, Ibn Baitar, &c. There is a dissertation by C. G. Kiihn, containing " Rufi Ephesii, De Medicamentis Pur- gantibus Fragmentum e Codice Parisiensi descrip- tum,"" 1831, 4to. Lips. ; and another by F. Osann, De Loco Rufi Ephesii Medici apud Oribasium sef- vato, sive de Peste Libyca, 1833, 4to. Giess. A new and improved edition of (it is believed) all the extant works of Rufus, is at this present timo ( 1 8 4 8 ) being prepared by Dr. C. Daremberg of Paris. Haller is inclined (Bibliofh. Botan. vol. i. p. 108) to attribute to Rufus an anonymous fragment of one hundred and ninety Greek hexameter verses, TltpX BoTaj/wr, De Viribns Herbarnm, which was first published in the Aldine edition of Dioscorides, Venet. 1518, 4to. p. 231, &c., and which is in- serted by Fabricius in his Bibliotheca Graeca (vol. ii. p. 629, ed. vet.), with Greek scholia, and a Latin translation and notes by J. Rentorf. Fabricius and others have been of the same opinion. Her- mann (Orphica, Lips. 1805, 8vo. pp. 717, 750, 761, &c.), on metrical groimds, determines the writer to have lived some time between Manetho, the author of the 'AiroT€eafxaTiKd, and Nonnus, the author of the Dionysiaca ; a date sufficiently indeterminate. Rufus certainly wrote a Greek hexameter poem, in four books, Tlepl Boravwy, which is mentioned by Galen (De Simplic. Me- dicam. Temper, ac Faculi. vi. praef. vol. xi. p. 796), who quotes a few verses (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Loc. i. 1, vol. xii. p. 425) ; but this is sup- posed by Chonlant to have been quite a different work from the fragment in question, chiefly on the ground that so scientific and sensible a physician as