Note (12) — BOOK I.

12. Nervus.) Though it might be doubted, whether the ancients comprehended under this word, what is now properly called a nerve, yet, it is certain they used it for a tendon, or ligament; which so evidently appears in many passages of Celsus, particularly the eighth book, that it is quite superfluous to instance any single example. And this is agreeable to the signification of the Greek word νευ̃ρον, a chord or string; and thus Hippocrates says, “The nerves are dry and void of any cavity, and grow to the bone, and have most of their nourishment from thence; they are nourished also from the flesh, and their colour and strength is in a middle degree between bone and flesh.” Hippocrat. Opera, sect. 4: lib. de loc. in homin. p. 409. ad finem. That I might not seem to determine, what may be thought doubtful, I have generally retained the author’s term nerve, and left the application to the reader’s judgment; but in some places, particularly in the eighth book, where the meaning was very evident, and the word νευ̃ρονnerve would have been harsh to an English reader, I have rendered it tendon, or ligament, as the connection appeared to require.