Note (4) — BOOK III.

4. For these reasons others defer it.) The translation is agreeable to the reading of Linden and Almeloveen. But Morgagni[ IV ] informs us, that all the editions in his possession, and the MS. too, read thus: Ob hæc ad mediam noctem decurro, id est, finito jam gravissimo tempore, eodemque longissime distante, secuturis vero antelucanis horis, quibus onmes fere maxime dormiunt, deinde matutino tempore, quod sua natura levissima est. That is, ‘for these reasons I defer it till midnight, that is, when the most severe time is over, and the return of it is at the greatest distance, this being succeeded by the hours before day-light, when every body generally sleeps most quietly, and these followed by the morning, which is naturally the easiest period of all.’—He adds, beside the impropriety of the prescription, as it now stands in Almeloveen, when Celsus meant quite otherwise; the place is the more worthy of notice, that it shews Celsus, although not for common, yet to have practised medicine.