LUS
But as phyficians did not adopt all the exerclfes of thcgym- - najlic art into their practice, it became divided between them and the matters of martial and athletic excrcifes, who kept fchools, the number of which was greatly encreafed in Greece. See Athleta, &c.
At 'length the Romans alfo caught the fame tafte, and adopt- ing the military and athletic exercifes of the Greeks; im- proved and advanced them to the utmoft pitch of magnifi- cence, not to fay extravagance. But the declenfion of the empire involved the arts in its ruin; and, among others, gymnajlics and medicine ; which laft unhappily then rehn- quifhed the title it had to the former, and has neglected to refume it ever fmce. Sec Medicine.
L.
LUSTRATION, Expiation; facrifices, or ceremonies, by which the Romans purified their cities, fields, armies, or people defiled by any crime, or impurity. See Lus- trum, Expiation, Purification, cVc Some of their lujlrations were public, others private. There were three fpecies, or manners of performing lujlra- tion ; viz. by fire and fulphur ; by water ; and by air j which laft was done by fanning and agitating^the air, round the tiling to be purified. See Ablution. There was alfo a peculiar kind of lujlration for young chil- dren. See Lustral day.
Lomeier has a volume exprefs on the lujlrations of the anti- cnts : Joh. Lomeieri Zutphanenfis Epimenides, five de vete- rum gentilium Lujlrationibus ; firft printed at Utrecht in 1681, and fincc, with additions, in 1702, 4 . All pcrfons, flaves only excepted, he fhews, were minifters of fome fort of lujlration. — When any one died, the houfe was to be fwept after a particular manner, by way of purifi- cation : the priefts threw water on new married people, with the like intention. — to purify themfelves, people would even fometimes run naked through the ftreets ; fuch was their extravagance. And, as if fancy were not fertile enough in inventing modes of lujlration, they even ufed enchantments to raife the dead, in order to get inftructions what they muff- do to purge themfelves of their fins. Add, that they fre- quently raifed the opinion of the fandtity of their expiations by fictitious miracles.
The birds, fay they, practife lujlration, both by wafhing themfelves, and throwing water on their neft. The hen takes ftraw, and ufes it to purify her chickens. — There was fcarce any action, at the beginning and end of which the Gentiles did not perform fome ceremony to cleanfe them- felves, and appeafe the gods. When they had no animals to facrifice, they made the figure of the beaft they would offer in dough, metal, or other matter ; and thus facrificed in effigy. Some expiations were performed in the water ; for which reafon, certain fountains and rivers were in great reputa- tion : others were performed in the air. — A certain heathen caufed himfelf to be ferioufly fifted in a fieve, as we now fift corn : another hung himfelf by a cord, and was toffed backwards and forwards : another (hut his eyes, and fet himfelf blindfold to find out a nofegay tied to a cord : others played at fee-faw, as a more efficacious way of appearing the gods.
Fire was much ufed for expiation : fometimes the penitents were caff into the fire ; at others, only brought to the flame, or fmoke.
It was common, on thefe occafions, to fhed human blood : The priefts of Cybele, Bellona, and Baal, made cruel inci- fions on themfelves. — Erectheus, king of Attica, facrificed his daughter to Proferpina. Several had their throats cut at Rome, to obtain the emperors health from the gods. Thofe who commanded armies, offered one of their foldiers to ap- peafe the anger of the gods ; that he alone might fuffer all the wrath the army deferved.
All forts of perfumes, and odoriferous herbs, had "place in lujlration.' — The egg was much ufed among them, as being the fymbol of the four elements : its fhell, they fay, repre- fents the earth; the yolk, a globe of fire; the white refem- bles the water, and befides, it has a fpirit, which reprefents the air. For this reafon it is, that the bonza's, or Indian priefts, believe to this day that the world came out of an egg. — There is fcarce any pot-herb, pulfe, tree, mineral, or metal, which they did not offer the gods by way of expia- tion : nor did they forget, milk, bread, wine, or honey : what is more, they made ufe of the very fpittle, and urine. The poets had feigned that the gods purified themfelves, and they did not omit to purify their ftatues. — They made a luf- tration for children, the eighth day after their birth. — When a man who had been falfly reputed dead, returned home, he was not to enter his houfe by the door. — It was a fettled cuf- tom to offer no expiation for thofe who were hanged by order of juftice ; or that were killed by thunder. Neither did they offer any for thofe who were drowned in the fea ; it being the common opinion, that their fouls perifhed with their bodies. And hence it was, that perfons in danger of fhipwreck fometimes thruft their fyyords through their bodies,
LUX
that they might not die in the fea; where they thought their foul, which they fuppofed to be a .flame, would be totally extinguifhed.
The moft celebrated expiatory facrifice was the hecatomb, when they offered an hundred beafts; though they common- ly did not offer fo many, but contented themfelves with killing twenty-five ; but thofe being quadrupeds, their feet came to an hundred. See Hecatomb. Lujlrations, and luftratory facrifices were not only performed for men, but alfo for temples, altars, theaters, trees foun- tains, rivers, fheep, fields and villages. When the Arval brothers offered a victim for the fields, their facrifice was called ambarvalia. See Ambaevalia. Cities were all to be purified, from time to time : fome
walked the victim round their walls, and then flew him.
The Athenians facrificed two men, one for the men of their city, and the other for the women. The Corinthians facrificed the children of Medea fo ; though the poets fay Medea killed them herfelf. The Romans performed the ceremony of purifying their city every fifth year -, whence the name of lujlrutn, given to the fpace of five years. See Lustrum.
Divers of the expiations were auftere : fome faffed ; others abftained from all fenfual pleafures : fome, as the priefts of Cybele, caftrated themfelves; others, that they might live chafte, eat rue, or lay under the branches of a fhrub called agnus cajlus. See Agnus Cajlus.
The poftures of the penitents were different, according to the different facrifices : they fometimes joined prayers to the fo- lemnity : at other times, a publick confeflion of fins was made.— The Indians, when they facrifice to Hercules, call him a thoufand reproachful names; and think they incur his anger, if any refpectful term come out of their mouth. The priefts changed their habits, according to the ceremo- nies to be performed: white, purple, and black, were the moft ufual colours. They had their heads always covered, and long hair, except in the facrifices of Saturn, Hercules, Honour, and a few others : only the priefts of Ifis were (ha- ven, becaufe that goddefs underwent the fame operation, af- ter the death of her hufband Ofiris. — In fome ceremonies the priefts were fhod, in others bare-foot: the poets exprefs the former by the word vinada. They had no girdles ; nay, they durft not pronounce the word ivyj becaufe ivy cleaves to every thing. — In the facrifices of Venus, and the Moon, every one took the habit of the contrary fex.- — Every thing was to be done by odd numbers ; becaufe they looked on an even number, which may be equally divided, as the fymbol of mortality and deftruction. The odd number was with, them holy: hence, Neptune's trident, Cerberus's three heads, and Jupiter's thunder-dart, with three points. They caft into the river, or at leaft out of the city, the ani- mals, or other things that had ferved for a lujlration, or fa- crifice of atonement ; and thought themfelves threatned with fome great misfortune, when by chance they trod upon them. — At Marfeilles, they took care to feed a poor man for fome time;- after which, they charged him with all the fins of the country, and drove him away: thofe of Leucade faftened a number of birds to a man charged with their fins, and in that condition caft him headlong from a high tower ; and if the birds hindered his being killed, they drove him out of the country.
Part of thefe ceremonies were abolifhed by the emperor Con- ftantine, and his fucceflbrs; the reft fubfifted till the Gothic kings were mafters of Rome, under whom they expired ; except that feveral of them were adopted by the popes, and brought into the church, where they make a figure to this day : witnefs the numerous confec rat ions, benedictions, ex- orcifms, ablutions, fprinklings, proceflions, feafts, &c. ftill in ufe in the Roman church. See Consecration, csV.
LUXATION*, Luxatio, in medicine and furgery, the flipping of the head of a bone from its proper receptacle into another place ; whereby the natural motion of the joint is deftroyed. See Bone, and Articulation.
- The word is Latin, formed from luxare, to loofen.
Luxation is the fame with what is other wife called dijkeation ; being the difplacing of a bone, or rather the disjointing of two bones articulated together for the motion of the part. Luxations are either violent, proceeding from fome external caufe ; as falls, ftrains, blows, leaps, extenfions, c5fr. — Or gentle, arifiug from internal caufes ; as a natural laxity of the ligaments, a fluxion of humours, or gradual collection there- of between the joints, &c.
Luxation, properly, has place only amongft bones whofe ftruc- ture determines them to a manifeft motion, as are all thofe united by diarthrohs ; thofe articulated by fynarthrofis, where there is no manifeft motion, are indeed fubject to fracture, caries, exoftofis, &c. but not to luxation. See Di arthro- sis, &c. Luxations, again, are either perfeSI, or impcrfeSi.
PerfeEi, or comphat Luxation, eEapgphma, is that where the head of a bone is actually ftarted out of the cavity of an- other. — It is known by a tumour, or protuberance, formed by the head of the feparated bone, which raifes up the fkin, and mufcular ftefh above its natural level in the part not de- 2 ftineJ
