| Title: | A, ā, or ā ā |
| Original Title: | A, ā, ou ā ā |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 1 (1751), p. 5 |
| Author: | Urbain de Vandenesse (biography) |
| Translator: | Mark K. Jensen [Pacific Lutheran University] |
| Subject terms: |
Medicine
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.437 |
| Citation (MLA): | Vandenesse, Urbain de. "A, ā, or ā ā." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Mark K. Jensen. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2017. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.437>. Trans. of "A, ā, ou ā ā," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 1. Paris, 1751. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Vandenesse, Urbain de. "A, ā, or ā ā." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Mark K. Jensen. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.437 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "A, ā, ou ā ā," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1:5 (Paris, 1751). |
A, ā, or ā ā; this abbreviation is used in medicine for ana, that is, to indicate an equal quantity of each different ingredient given in a formula. Thus thuris, myrrhae, aluminis, ā j, is the same thing as thuris, myrrhae, aluminis, ana j. In both examples, ā, ā ā , and ana, signify equal parts of each ingredient. [1] means, take some incense, some myrrh, some alum, of each one scruple.
This meaning of ana does not have as its origin a caprice of the first physician who used it, and it is not the authority of his successors who determined its value and use. The preposition [2] άνὰ among the Greeks had the same meaning as in writers on medicine today.
Hippocrates in his treatise on diseases of women, [3] after having spoken of a pessary that he recommends as proper for conception, and after having specified the drugs for it, adds άνὰ ὄβολον έκάστον, that is to say, one drachma [4] of each. See Ana.
1. Apparently the rest of the formula was inadvertently omitted.
2. The text of the Encyclopédie has proposition, an obvious error. The general meaning of the Greek preposition ἀνἁ is ‘on, upon’.
3. Diseases of Women (περἰ γυναικείων in Greek), in three books (Littré 8.1-233, 234-407, 408-463).
4. A more precise translation of the Greek is ‘at (or ‘up to’) one obol each’ (thanks to Professor of Classics Eric Nelson of Pacific Lutheran University for the translation and for assistance with the Greek). An obol in ancient Greece was one-sixth of a drachma (about 0.72 grams).