Neoterics

Use in the book

Burton himself supplies a useful key to the term when he admits that his lists sometimes put neoterics before ancients because memory, rather than chronology, determines their order. He directs readers from the large medical books of older authorities to meticulous recent writers who have systematically treated bodily diseases. The praise concerns their manner and extent of treatment. It does not declare every recent writer infallible, or imply that their works are recent relative to the present reader.

The symptom catalogue presents medical knowledge as a chain of compilation and repetition. Juniors follows names such as Galen, Rufus, Aëtius, Rhazes and Gordonius and means the later writers who repeat the signs. Neither junior professional rank nor the writers’ biological youth is at issue.

The later argument shows why chronology cannot substitute for judgment. Burton initially says that Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna and all neoterics regard prolonged fear and sorrow as common distinguishing signs. He immediately compares uncritical followers to hounds on a false scent, names later writers who object to the generalization, and eventually says that melancholy people are usually, rather than always, sad and fearful. Juniors can therefore identify dissenters as readily as transmitters. The two labels locate authorities; the surrounding argument determines whether Burton praises, follows or challenges them.

The age sense remains visible outside bibliography. Old men call all juniors fools while failing to recognize their own folly. Here the comparison concerns generations and reciprocal prejudice, not the relative dates of medical publications. Burton’s use of the same form in these different settings calls for contextual reading rather than a single automatic replacement.

Related entries

Physician

Fear

Sorrow

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 5–7Burton on citation order, chronology and revision.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraphs 19–21Juniors as younger people in reciprocal generational prejudice.
3. Subsection 2. The Definition, Number and Classification of Diseases · paragraphs 9–13The meticulous recent medical authorities and the scope of Burton’s discussion.
4. Subsection 5. The Soul and Its Faculties · paragraphs 20–24Neoterick as an adjective for recent philosophers who acknowledge the difficulty of knowing the soul.
5. Section 3. Member 1. Subsection 1. Symptoms or Signs of Melancholy in the Body · paragraphs 7–10Symptoms repeated by later writers.
6. Subsection 2. Symptoms or Signs in the Mind · paragraphs 22–27An asserted recent consensus is challenged and qualified.
7. Subsection 2 Single Substances That Purge Melancholy Downwards · paragraphs 24–28Iunior physicians dissent over hellebore; other recent writers approve it, with qualifications.

In this edition

“exact Neotericks” becomes “meticulous modern writers”. Exact praises care and precision; modern is relative to Burton’s older authorities. “all the Juniors” becomes “all the later writers”, and “amongst the Juniors” becomes “among the later writers”.

The later-writer rendering preserves the chronological sense without assigning subordinate rank. It also leaves the force of all visible where Burton first asserts broad agreement. The next passage supplies the objection. By contrast, “Old men account Juniors all fools” becomes “Old men think all younger people fools”, marking the ordinary age distinction.

Juniors · local use 1

Printed “Juniors” (English; lemma).

Later writers in a succession of authorities. The related adjective Iunior means more recent.

Here: The symptom catalogue is represented as transmitted and repeated through medical books.

Context: Burton makes a general claim of repetition; the term concerns chronology, not professional subordination.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: all the Juniors

Modern rendering: all the later writers

Word and construction: Juniors supplies later writers; all the is retained.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Juniors” (English; lemma).

Here: Later medical writers who raise objections to a received aphorism.

Context: Hercules de Saxonia and Mercatus are named as exceptions to the preceding claim of universal recent agreement.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: amongst the Juniors

Modern rendering: among the later writers

Word and construction: Juniors supplies later writers; amongst the supplies among the.

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Iunior” (English; lemma).

Here: More recent, qualifying physicians. Some later medical writers continue to oppose hellebore.

Context: Crato and some recent physicians dissent; another passage then reports most recent writers’ approval, with a right-time qualification. No unanimous recent verdict is claimed.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: some Iunior Physitians

Modern rendering: some more recent physicians

Word and construction: Iunior supplies more recent; some and Physitians supply the quantifier and profession.

Sense relation: Related adjectival application of the same relative chronological sense.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Juniors · local use 2

Printed “Juniors” (English; lemma).

Younger people, contrasted with older people.

Here: This ordinary age comparison prevents the bibliographical definition from being extended to every occurrence.

Context: Burton criticizes the old men’s self-exemption from folly; all belongs to their judgment, not his endorsed description of younger people.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Old men account Juniors all fools

Modern rendering: Old men think all younger people fools

Word and construction: Juniors supplies younger people; all fools is the old men’s reported judgment.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Neoterics

Printed “Neotericks” (English; family).

More recent writers, relative to the older authorities and to Burton’s historical horizon. The related adjective Neoterick means comparatively recent.

Here: The medical writers are commended for systematic, elaborate accounts of bodily diseases.

Context: Burton refers the reader to these works while reserving diseases of mind and head for his own brief treatment.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: exact Neotericks

Modern rendering: meticulous modern writers

Word and construction: Neotericks supplies modern writers; exact supplies meticulous. Modern is relative to Burton’s historical horizon.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Neotericks” (English; family).

Here: The opposition marks chronology within Burton’s lists of authorities.

Context: Burton admits that memory, rather than chronological arrangement, often governs his citations.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Neotericks before Ancients

Modern rendering: modern writers before ancient ones

Word and construction: Neotericks supplies modern writers; before Ancients supplies before ancient ones.

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Neotericks” (English; family).

Here: The phrase asserts a consensus among recent medical authorities about prolonged fear and sorrow as signs of melancholy.

Context: This sweeping all is immediately challenged by counterexamples and corrected to usually rather than always in the following argument.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: all Neotericks hold

Modern rendering: all the more recent writers maintain

Word and construction: Neotericks supplies the more recent writers; all and hold supply all and maintain.

Sense relation: The same lexical sense in a further distinct local use or qualification.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.

Further local use

Printed “Neoterick” (English; family).

Here: Comparatively recent, qualifying philosophers. Burton reports their acknowledgment of difficulty in knowing the soul.

Context: Burton reports a confession of epistemic difficulty, not a settled doctrine of the soul’s essence.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Neoterick Philosophers

Modern rendering: more recent philosophers

Word and construction: Neoterick supplies more recent; Philosophers supplies philosophers.

Sense relation: Related adjectival application of the same relative chronological sense.

Alignment conventions: Alignment convention.