Topick and topicks

Use in the book

The air digression asks why different regions have sharply different weather. After contrasting the supposedly stormy Atlantic and relatively calm Pacific, Burton proposes a series of possible causes: local stars, astrological configurations, winds and different states of air. Topick restricts the stars by their supposed connection with particular places, but the governing “Is it from” makes this a question among alternatives. Neither the adjective nor the list establishes that Burton has demonstrated the cause of the climatic difference. The neighbouring paragraphs continue to assemble reports of unusual regional conditions.

In hypochondriacal treatment, the contrast is not between a medicine for one topic and another. The preceding paragraph names inward medicines; “Topicks or outward medicines” then introduces baths and externally applied preparations for the regions beneath the ribs, spleen and liver. Baths are included in the class, so topicks must not be narrowed to small plasters alone. The following paragraph continues with cloth dressings, powders, bags and oils. The noun organizes the route or manner of application, while the individual preparation names specify materials and procedures. This is Burton’s historical classification rather than a present-day prescription.

The religious use again concerns locality. Within a polemical catalogue of different positions, Burton contrasts a general or universal God with “several Topick gods for several places.” The repeated several distinguishes different gods and places. His ensuing clause against persecution is compressed: the modern column takes its pronoun as the people or communities concerned, not gods persecuting one another. The edition explicitly leaves the scope uncertain and does not certify Burton’s representation as an accurate account of Socinian doctrine. Local is a secure lexical meaning here; the exact doctrinal assignment is not.

The book-title use belongs to a different argument about authors seeking immortality. Even the writer Burton calls Democharis, commenting on the Topicks, demands enduring fame; Typotius writing about fame then supplies a circular joke about deserving it. This occurrence helps prevent a search error: capitalization and identical spelling do not turn a title into a medical category. The point is an author’s pretension, not the definition or appraisal of a topical remedy.

Related entries

Astrology retains the wider celestial explanatory vocabulary; Divine and Idolatry and images the theological and polemical distinctions. Epithemes, Plaster and cerate (Plaster and cerate) and Fomentation (Fomentation) explain different members of the external-treatment class.

Explained vocabulary: Additional Terms.

Places to read

1. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 30A claim to literary survival precedes the satire. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
2. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 31Topicks as the title of a work associated with the uncertain Democharis.
3. Subsection 14 Self-Love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Excessive Applause, Pride, Too Much Joy, and So on, as Causes · paragraph 32Public applause continues the authorial-fame motif. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
4. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraph 1Reported regional conditions introduce the climate questions. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
5. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraph 2Local stars offered among possible explanations.
6. Member 3. Air Corrected. With a Digression on Air · paragraph 3Reports of unexpected heat and cold continue. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
7. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 42Inward medicines immediately precede the topical class. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
8. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 43Topicks glossed as outward medicines, including baths.
9. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 44Other external preparations extend the category. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
10. Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraph 20Different religious positions said to need different remedies. [Context, not a headword attestation.]
11. Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraph 21Local gods contrasted with a universal God; the Socinus clause remains uncertain.
12. Member 2 Subsection 1 Religious Melancholy From Deficiency: Those Affected—Epicures, Atheists, Hypocrites, the Worldly and Complacent, Carnalists, All Impious People, Impenitent Sinners, and Others · paragraph 22Burton refers readers to apologetic argument. [Context, not a headword attestation.]

In this edition

“Topick stars” becomes “stars governing particular places,” making the local relation explicit; governing belongs to the phrase’s explanatory rendering, not to a separate original verb. “Topicks or outward medicines” becomes “topical or external medicines.” “Topick gods” is rendered “local gods,” with no implication that local means inferior in rank by itself. The title Topicks is modernized to Topics but not silently assigned a securely identified commentator. These uses should also remain distinct from the editor’s own descriptions of marginal labels as topical headings.

Topick stars [phrase]

Stars understood as associated with or governing particular places.

Original wording: “Is it from Topick stars”

Modern wording: “Do these and similar differences of heat and cold come from stars governing particular places”

The whole phrase identifies local stellar agency as one possible explanation in a question. Burton also lists non-stellar alternatives, so the record must not turn the question into an established cause. Lookup: topick [stars]; topical stars; local stars.

Topicks [external medicines]

Medicines or treatments applied externally.

Original wording: “Topicks or outward medicines”

Modern wording: “topical or external medicines”

Burton’s own gloss supplies the meaning. Baths fall within the category, followed by local liquid applications and dressings; the noun is broader than a plaster or ointment. Lookup: topicks; topicals; outward medicines; topical medicine.

Topick gods [phrase]

Gods assigned to particular places rather than universal rule.

Original wording: “several Topick gods for several places”

Modern wording: “different local gods to different places”

Several means distinct or different. The lexical locality is clear even though the following clause attributed to Socinus has an uncertain scope; the passage is Burton’s polemical representation. Lookup: topick [gods]; local gods.

Topicks [book-title use]

A scholarly work cited through its commentator, rather than a class of external medicines.

Original wording: “Democharis on the Topicks”

Modern wording: “Democharis, writing on the Topics”

The preposition on makes the named work the subject of commentary. Burton invokes it in satire about literary immortality; the editor does not securely identify the printed Democharis, and this record does not supply a speculative identity. Lookup: Topics [book title]; Topicks [title].