HOBART_Medical_Langu.. - Bbc-cromwell.org

218 THE MEDICAL LANGUAGE OF ST. LUKE. [part ii.
ayei o?y to c,r]pov tov ahjf.iaTOQ to ek tiiq (C£0aA?/c vygov kqi
aiLia Kol SioSoi elaiv rtj* ayovTi /uaAXov 17 ro> ayofxivm.
Aretaeus, Cur. Acut. Morb. 106 : al tHjv ^XejSwv K£vu>aieg
evpvT£pr}v TTJv TOV TnnvfxovoQ Troiiovai xwpriv Ig diodov Trig
avciTTvorig.
X. 11 :
" And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel
descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet {696vr]v
fxeyaXrjv) knit at the four corners [rkaaaQaiv apyaig), and let
down to the earth.
* apy^ai. * oOovn- apxai, in the Sense it bears here, is
peculiar to St. Luke, as also is oOovrt ; and the phrase apxal
6B6vr]g bears clearly on the face of it the mark of a medical
hand, for this strange use of apx^^'h "the beginnings," for "the
ends,"
was the technical expression in medical language for
the ends of bandages, instead of iripaTa employed in ordinary
language. Galen remarks on this use, Comm. Offic. ii. 8 (xviii.
B. 748) : Kctt TLCfiv tSo^Ev apx^g eindtcriuLwv ukovuv civtI tov
kuitol yeviKtJTspov ovojuia to iripag tori Trig ap\rig.
The bandage itself was termed l-nrLdecriiiog, 666vn and
TTtjOara,
odoviov, oOoviov being the term in Hippocrates; in the
other medical writers it is as often dOovri as oOoviov. We
have thus in this passage a technical medical phrase apxal
oOovrig—the ends of a bandage—used for the ends of a
sheet, an expression which hardly anyone except a medical
man would think of employing. Still further, it would not
be out of the way for a physician to speak of a sheet or
bandage having more than two ends, apxai, as it had frequently
eight, six, or four ends, according to the purpose
for which it was required, the bandage being sometimes
at its extremities split into a certain number of strips, the
middle being left entire: e.g. Gralen. De Fasciis, 8 (xviii. A.
783) : diaipovpsv TO puKog tig (TkAij Tiaaapa to p.iaov avvi.x}^g
lujvng. Do. 9 (783) : SuAovrsc TO paKog tig aKiXri 6kt(o tov
piaov Iiaxj-OTOV KUTaXtiTro/xivov. Do. 7 (782) : avppsTpov
fjUKog XajiovTeg iTriaxiKofJiev ilg ctkAi) t^.
For this use of apxn in connection with oOovri, odoviov,