Eight books on medicine — the only surviving portion of a larger encyclopaedia. Celsus covers surgery, pharmacology, and disease with a clarity that made the work a medical textbook when it was rediscovered in the Renaissance.
Start ReadingThe history of medicine from the Greeks to Rome. Diet and regimen as the foundation of health. Prevention before treatment.
General principles of treatment. Signs and prognosis. Fever management. The Hippocratic tradition applied to Roman practice.
Specific diseases: fevers, pestilence, and internal complaints. Treatment by diet, drugs, and rest.
Diseases of specific body parts: head, eyes, ears, throat, stomach. External and internal treatments.
Pharmacology. Celsus catalogues drugs by type and effect: emollients, irritants, corrosives, sedatives, emetics.
More pharmacology and specific drug preparations. Plasters, poultices, and compound remedies.
Surgery. Celsus describes surgical instruments and procedures including lithotomy, trepanation, and the removal of arrows. Remarkably detailed and practical.
Bone surgery. Fractures, dislocations, and orthopaedic procedures. Celsus's descriptions are precise enough to follow today.