Cælius, Aurelianus

, or, as some have called him, Lucius Cælius Arianus, an ancient physician, and the only one of the sect of the methodists of whom we have any remains, is supposed to have been a native of Sicca, a town of Numidia, in Africa. This we learn from the elder Pliny; and we might almost have collected it, without any information at all, from his style, which is very barbarous, and much resembling that of the African writers. It is half Greek, half Latin, harsh, and difficult; yet strong, masculine, and his works are valuable for the matter they contain. He is frequently very acute and smart, especially where he exposes the errors of other physicians and always nervous. What age Cælius Aurelianus flourished in we cannot determine, there being so profound a silence about it amongst the ancients; but it is very probable that he lived before Galen, since it is not conceivable that he should mention, as he does, all the physicians before him, great as well as small, and yet not make the least mention of Galen. Le Clerc places him in the fifth century. He was not only a careful imitator of Soranus, but also a strenuous advocate for him. He had read over very | diligently the ancient physicians of all the sects and we are obliged to him for the knowledge of many dogmas, which are not to he found but in his books “De celeribus et tardis passionibus.” The best edition of these books is that published at Amsterdam, 1722, in 4to. He wrote, as he himself tells us, several other works; but they are all perished. This, however, which has escaped the ruins of time and barbarism, is highly valued, as being the only monument of the Medicina methodica which is extant. He is allowed by all to be judicious in the history and description of diseases 1

1

Le Clerc Hist. de Med.—Haller Bibl. Med. Pract.