Actua'rius(Ἀκτουάριος), the surname by
which an ancient Greek physician, whose real name was Joannes, is commonly known. His father's
name was Zacharias; he himself practised at Constantinople, and, as it appears, with some
degree of credit, as he was honoured with the title of
Actuarius,
a dignity frequently conferred at that court upon physicians. (
Dict. of
Ant. p. 611b.) Very little is known of the events of his life, and his date is rather
uncertain, as some persons reckon him to have lived in the eleventh century, and others bring
him down as low as the beginning of the fourteenth. He probably lived towards the end of the
thirteenth century, as one of his works is dedicated to his tutor, Joseph Racendytes, who
lived in the reign of Andronicus II. Palaeologus,
A. D. 1281-
1328. One of his school-fellows is supposed to have been Apocauchus, whom
he describes (though without naming him) as going upon an embassy to the north. (
De Meth. Med. Praef. in i. ii. pp. 139, 169.)
Works
Περὶ Ἐνεργειῶν καὶ Παθῶν τοῦ ψυχικοῦ Πνεύματος,
καὶ τῆς κατʼ αὐτὸ Διαίτης (
De Actionibus et Affectibus
Spiritus Animalis, ejusque Nutritione)
One of his works is entitled, Περὶ Ἐνεργειῶν καὶ Παθῶν
τοῦ ψυχικοῦ Πνεύματος, καὶ τῆς κατʼ αὐτὸ Διαίτης--
De Actionibus et Affectibus Spiritus Animalis, ejusque Nutritione. This is a
psychological and physiological work in two books, in which all his reasoning, says Freind,
seems to be founded upon the principles laid down by Aristotle, Galen, and others, with
relation to the same subject. The style of this tract is by no means impure, and has a great
mixture of the old Attic in it, which is very rarely to be met with in the later Greek
writers. A tolerably full abstract of it is given by Barchusen,
Hist.
Medic. Dial. 14. p. 338, &c.
Editions
Latin Edition
It was first published, Venet. 1547, 8vo. in a Latin translation by Jul.
Alexandrinus de Neustain.
Greek Editions
The first edition of the original was published, Par. 1557, 8vo. edited, without
notes or preface, by Jac. Goupyl.A second Greek edition appeared in 1774, 8vo. Lips., under the care of J. F.
Fischer.Ideler has also inserted it in the first volume of his Physici
et Medici Graeci Minores, Berol. 8vo. 1841; and the first part of
J. S. Bernardi Reliquiae Medico-Criticae, ed. Gruner, Jenae,
1795, 8vo. contains some Greek Scholia on the work.
Θεραπευτικὴ Μέθοδος (
De
Methodo Medendi)
Another of his extant works is entitled, Θεραπευτικὴ
Μέθοδος,
De Methodo Medendi, in six books, which
have hitherto appeared complete only in a Latin translation, though Dietz had, before his
death, collected materials for a Greek edition of this and his other works. (See his preface
to Galen
De Dissect. Masc.) In these books, says Freind, though he
chiefly follows Galen, and very often Aetius and Paulus Aegineta without naming him, yet he
makes use of whatever he finds to his purpose both in the old and modern writers, as well
barbarians as Greeks; and indeed we find in him several things that are not to be met with
elsewhere. The work was written extempore, and designed for the use of Apocauchus during his
embassy to the north. (Praef. i. p. 139.)
Editions
Latin Edition
A Latin translation of this work by Corn. H. Mathisius, was first published Venet.
1554, 4to. The first four books appear sometimes to have been considered to form a
complete work, of which the first and second have been inserted by Ideler in the
second volume of his Phys. et Med. Gr. Min. Berol. 1842,
under the title Περὶ Διαγνώσεως Παθῶν, " De
Morborum Dignotione," and from which the Greek extracts in H. Stephens's Dictionarium Medicum, Par. 1564, 8vo. are probably taken.
The fifth and sixth books have also been taken for a separate work, and were
published by themselves, Par. 1539, 8vo. and Basil. 1540, 8vo. in a Latin translation by
J. Ruellius, with the title " De Medicamentorum Compositione."
An extract from this work is inserted in Fernel's collection of writers De Felribus, Venet. 1576, fol.
Περὶ Οὐρῶν (
De
Uriniis)
His other extant work is Περὶ Οὐρῶν,
De Uriniis, in seven books. He has treated of this subject very fully
and distinctly, and, though he goes upon the plan which Theophilus Protospatharius had
marked out, yet he has added a great deal of original matter. It is the most complete and
systematic work on the subject that remains from antiquity, so much so that, till the
chemical improvements of the last hundred years, he had left hardly anything new to be said
by the moderns, many of whom, says Freind, transcribed it almost word for word.
Editions
Latin Edition
This work was first published in a Latin translation by Ambrose Leo, which
appeared in 1519, Venet. 4to., and has been several times reprinted.
Greek Edition
The Greek original has been published for the first time in the second volume of
Ideler's work quoted above.
Editions
Latin Editions
Two Latin editions of his collected works are said by Choulant (Handbuch
der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin, Leipzig, 1841), to have been
published in the same year, 1556, one at Paris, and the other at Lyons,
both in 8vo.
Greek Edition
His three works are also inserted in the
Medici Artis Principes of H.
Stephens, Par. 1567, fol.
Further Information
Freind's Hist. of Physic; Sprengel, Hist. de la
Méd.; Haller, Biblioth. Medic. Pract.; Barchusen, Hist. Medic.
[W.A.G](author.W.A.G)]