Enkauseos
Enkauseos grece aeris adustio Cassius felix.
Apparatus:
Enkauseos C | Enchauseos B | Enkanseos ef {'u' misread as 'n'}
aeris B e | ae͡r f | om. AC
Translation:
Enkauseos is Greek for Latin aeris adustio {"hotting up of air"}, as mentioned in Cassius Felix.
Commentary:
Greek ἔγκαυσις /énkausis/ is glossed by LSJ as I. "encaustic painting". II. "heat-stroke", and in this latter sense it is used by Dioscorides and Galen. However, the word is derived from a root that means "to kindle, burn", cf. καίω /kaíō/, and ἐγκαίω /enkaíō/ in the passive means "to be overheated". In the Latin medical literature of Antiquity encausis only occurs in Cassius Felix's De medicina, where it is used four times, once in the sense of ustio aeris "hotting up of air" (see below), twice in the sense of "inflammation" and once probably meaning "heat stroke". Cassius offers these Latin translations for it: ustio and adustio "a kindling, burning; a burn; an inflammation"; which are similarly derived from a Latin root meaning "to burn, inflame, consume, scorch", cf. uro.
Grammatically the form Simon uses in this entry is the genitive case of the word ἔγκαυσις /énkausis/, i.e. ἐγκαύσεως /enkaúseōs/, perhaps because it is always quoted in Cassius Felix following the preposition ex, i.e. ex encauseos "for the reason of encausis", ex here being the Greek preposition ἐκ, ἐξ /ek, ex/ which requires the genitive: ἐξ ἐγκαύσεως /ex enkaúseōs/.
The presence of the word aeris in the text, omitted in witness A and C, makes it clear that Simon is alluding to Cassius Felix, Ad capitis dolorem, 1, 7, ed. Fraisse (2001: 7), where Cassius suggests purgatives for patients with chronic head aches and he writes: Transacto autem purgationis tempore si ex encauseos fuerit dolor id est ustione aeris, maxime tempore aestatis, oxyrodino id est aceto et rosaceo frigido caput embrocabis - "Once the purgation is over and if the pain is caused ex encauseos, which means due to a hotting up of air, especially in the summer time, you apply to the head a wet poultice made of oxyrodinon, which consists of vinegar and cold rose-oil", and he then continues to suggest further remedial treatment.
WilfGunther 10/11/13
See also: Oxyrodinum, Embroca
