We use the format of a hypothetical case study to review issues related to pharmaceutical product approval and physician prescribing practices. In this case, a new FDA-approved drug is recommended for a patient who subsequently experiences an adverse event that may or may not be related to the prescription. This case raises a number of ethical and legal considerations physicians routinely face when deciding whether to recommend such drugs for their patients. Despite the need for ongoing observation by the regulatory (...) apparatus, physicians should be cognizant of the limitations of the drug approval system and the post-approval prescription drug surveillance system. We discuss physicians’ ethical obligations when faced with a newly approved drug, including seeking out independent sources of learning, reporting adverse effects, and notifying patients about limitations in available knowledge about therapeutic recommendations. (shrink)

Isidore Etymologiae Vol. II. Books XI-XX.

Phage DNA packaging occurs by DNA translocation into a prohead. Terminases are enzymes which initiate DNA packaging by cutting the DNA concatemer, and they are closely fitted structurally to the portal vertex of the prohead to form a ‘packasome’. Analysis among a number of phages supports an active role of the terminases in coupling ATP hydrolysis to DNA translocation through the portal. In phage T4 the small terminase subunit promotes a sequence‐specific terminase gene amplification within the chromosome. This link between (...) recombination and packaging suggests a DNA synapsis mechanism by the terminase to control packaging initiation, formally homologous to eukaryotic chromosome segregation. (shrink)

The Teubner edition of Festus de Verborum Significatu had scarcely appeared when Professor Anspach announced his discovery of a MS. of Isidore's Etymologies with some Scholia taken from Festus. Last Easter, in the limited time at my disposal, I transcribed from the MS. the greater part of this Isidore Commentary and, later, received a transcript of the remainder from Abbe Liebaert some weeks before his death. Although hampered by the deficiencies of our University Library, I am unwilling to keep this (...) new evidence any longer from students of Festus. (shrink)

Egypt has not yet given us a Greek original of Plautus, unless the paltry Hibeh fragments belong to the original of the Aulularia. If they do, then Plautus departed widely from the Greek. And that is what one would expect. Read any ‘sermo’ in Plautus and see how recklessly he abandons himself to the vagaries of his humour. Clearly no ‘icily regular’ Greek is his guide there. Still a ray of light has come from Egypt that illumines one dark spot (...) in Plautus, the end of the first Scene of the Bacchides. The two sisters retreat into the house after a line which appears in our editions in this form. (shrink)

The Placidus Glossary was hailed in Ritschl's time as a new clue to Plautus' true text. And Buecheler, Ritschl's pupil, seized on its Alapari est alapas minari, etc., and foisted this verb on Plaut. True. 928. The great Latin Thesaurus quotes the line with this piece of new cloth put on an old garment: nil alapari satiust, miles, instead of the correct philippiari satiust, miles.

Since Teuffel's Römische Literatur mentions s.v. Varius the famous entry in the Monte Cassino MS. incipit thvestes varii, but ignores its occurrence in a Benevento MS. , it may be well to give some account of the latter codex. For I read with amusement a recent article in this journal in which the writer severely censured Mr. Garrod's ignorance of the entry in Paris 7530, but revealed his own ignorance by assuming that it was the scribe of the Paris MS. (...) who had the lost tragedy of Varius before him. (shrink)

The abbreviation-symbols of the Romans, found in ancient uncial MSS., may be roughly divided into three classes: Those peculiar to juristic writing, e.g. R.P. ‘res priuata’ , Q.D.R.A. ‘qua de re agitur.’ They are properly called ‘notae iuris.’ They abound in the famous Verona MS. of Gaius. A few used in histories, etc., e.g. R.P. 'respublica' , Q. ‘Quintus’ . Valerius Probus, who compiled a manual of ancient Notae, calls this class ‘notae publicae’. They appear in such MSS. as the (...) codex Puteanus of Livy ; and since they have been transferred into modern editions of the Latin historians, etc., no one is at a loss to interpret them nowadays, although they puzzled mediaeval scribes. Symbols of ordinary words of frequent occurrence in any type of literature, e.g. Q. ‘que.’ It is this class which is the subject of this article. (shrink)

The Oxford Classical Texts, or Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, are renowned for their reliability and presentation. The series consists of a text without commentary but with a brief apparatus criticus at the front of each page. There are now over 100 volumes, representing the greater part of classical Greek and Latin literature. The aim of the series remains that of including the works of all the principal classical authors. Although this has been largely accomplished, new volumes are still being published (...) to fill the remaining gaps, and old editions are being revised in the light of recent research or replaced. (shrink)

In Italy, at the end of the tenth century, a pedant named Regulus (?) who had a copy of the De Verborum Significatu (or had made extracts from one), wishing to read Plautus (so often quoted by Festus), took the opportunity of an illness to appeal to certain prelates whose church-library contained a MS. of the comedian. Through their stupidity he received not Plautus, but Plato, i.e. Chalcidius' translation of the Timaeus. Disappointed, but not deterred, he wrote the following letter (...) (in a sort of rhyming prose, affected by the litterati of that time) on the fly-leaf and returned the MS. (now Bamberg. Class. 18), hoping that by much repetition he might hammer into their dull heads the difference between PL-AU-TUS and PL-A-TO and yet save them from chagrin and resentment (the material for the letter was supplied by Festus, although the opening illustration comes from Chalcidius). (shrink)

It has been pointed out above that Festus in his quotations cares more for the completion of the line than of the sense. His normal form is one complete line. So the probability is that Liu. Andr. com. is an Iambic Senarius, with a dactyl in the first foot and hiatus at the pause in the sense.

How any editor of Plautus can become one of the slash-cut-and-carve critics I cannot understand. The fair garden-beds of Plautus are scored all over with the hoof-prints of the reckless emender. Take this line of the Poenulus for example. Hanno gets a sight of his two long-lost daughters and is surprised to find how they have grown:Haecine meae sunt filiae?Quantae e quantillis iam sunt factae!His would-be son-in-law, not a very refined youth, says with a smile:Scin quid est?Thraecae sunt: in celonem (...) sustolli solent. (shrink)

Professor Postgate speaks of ‘the regrettable silence of the principal editors of Plautus upon the subject.’ As a minor editor, I beg to defend my colleagues by pointing out that the scansions dĭŭtíus and dyūtius are subject of a note in Dziatzko's and Hauler's editions of the Phormio of Terence and in the Plautus Report in Bursian of 1879 . Also that a reference to the index of my larger edition of the Captiui will show that the word is discussed (...) in my section on Prosody : ‘The same doubt exists regarding the scansion of diutius , the by-form of the fuller form dĭūtĭŭs .’. (shrink)

In the 'nineties the Celtic philologist, Whitley Stokes, told us in Common-room, that he once awoke muttering an incomplete stanza: Like an ogress making progress Through the spare-ribs of a child. Could anyone complete it for him? A former Newdigate prizeman, after reflexion, produced this: Stern endeavour will be ever By some welcome find beguiled, Like an ogress making progress Through the spare-ribs of a child.

The line is preserved in a passage of Consentius ‘De Barbarismis et Metaplasmis’ : sicut Lucilius ‘ore corupto’; dempsit enim unam litteram per metaplasmum, r; et Ennius ‘huic statuam,’ etc.

My hope of an edition of the quotations in the Liber Glossarum has at last been realized in Professor Mountford's excellent Quotations from Classical Authors in Medieval Latin Glossaries, New York and London, 1925.

Gellia, of noble lineage, swore she would marry no one lower than a peer, but ultimately flung herself away on—whom? Nupsisti, Gellia, cistifero, say the two best families of MSS.; nupsisti, Gellia, cistibero says the third.

The Teubner edition of Festus de Verborum Significatu had scarcely appeared when Professor Anspach announced his discovery of a MS. of Isidore's Etymologies with some Scholia taken from Festus. Last Easter, in the limited time at my disposal, I transcribed from the MS. the greater part of this Isidore Commentary and, later, received a transcript of the remainder from Abbe Liebaert some weeks before his death. Although hampered by the deficiencies of our University Library, I am unwilling to keep this (...) new evidence any longer from students of Festus. (shrink)

In Italy, at the end of the tenth century, a pedant named Regulus who had a copy of the De Verborum Significatu, wishing to read Plautus, took the opportunity of an illness to appeal to certain prelates whose church-library contained a MS. of the comedian. Through their stupidity he received not Plautus, but Plato, i.e. Chalcidius' translation of the Timaeus. Disappointed, but not deterred, he wrote the following letter on the fly-leaf and returned the MS., hoping that by much repetition (...) he might hammer into their dull heads the difference between PL-AU-TUS and PL-A-TO and yet save them from chagrin and resentment : Differentia est qua differunt singula: in Timeo Platonis legitur ANIMA-M post ANIMA-L non perire: in Plauto legitur CANCRUM imitaris, item aeneis COCULIS excocta est mihi omnis misericordia. (shrink)

In the small Teubner edition a warning is given that the alphabetical arrangement of these books may be medieval. Our MSS. of the Compendiosa Doctrina all come from one archetype, which had a misplaced leaf, many gaps, many ‘doctored’ passages, and a large number of scribal errors. And that archetype I believe to have been preserved in some English monastery library.

It has been pointed out above that Festus in his quotations cares more for the completion of the line than of the sense. His normal form is one complete line. So the probability is that Liu. Andr. com. is an Iambic Senarius, with a dactyl in the first foot and hiatus at the pause in the sense.

In the Teubner edition, just published, I had to reduce the apparatus criticus to the smallest possible dimensions. All conjectures that were merely probable and not fairly certain had to be excluded. Some of them that are new may find a place here. There is only one MS. of Festus′ epitome of Verrius. It is now at Naples, and is said to have been found in Illyria. Dr. E. A. Loew, the leading authority on Italian script, tells us that it (...) was written at Rome towards the end of the eleventh century. It must have been rescued from a fire; for the outer edges of all the pages are burned away, so that the greater part of the outer of the two columns on each page has been lost. The chief task for editors is to fill up by conjecture these gaps in the outer columns. Scaliger won immortal fame in this work, although many of his conjectures merely followed out a suggestion of his predecessor, Augustini. Ursini and Miiller were of service in adapting to the conditions of space the stop-gaps of Scaliger, and both of them, chiefly Miiller, added excellent conjectures of their own. The conjectural supplements, printed in italics in Müller's edition, have often, especially in German students′ dissertations, been treated as if they were actually part of the text. The Hungarian editor, Emil Thewrewk, who first provided satisfactory manuscript material for Paulus′ epitome of Festus, in order to prevent this error, took the extreme course of omitting these supplements in his edition; although many of them are made absolutely certain by the words of Paulus. I have taken a middle course between Miiller and Thewrewk and have admitted the certain and the probable supplements, leaving blanks elsewhere. The supplements are printed within angular brackets, the merely probable supplements being in italic type. (shrink)

Egypt has not yet given us a Greek original of Plautus, unless the paltry Hibeh fragments belong to the original of the Aulularia. If they do, then Plautus departed widely from the Greek. And that is what one would expect. Read any ‘sermo’ in Plautus and see how recklessly he abandons himself to the vagaries of his humour. Clearly no ‘icily regular’ Greek is his guide there. Still a ray of light has come from Egypt that illumines one dark spot (...) in Plautus, the end of the first Scene of the Bacchides. The two sisters retreat into the house after a line which appears in our editions in this form. (shrink)

Cicero defines gloria as frequens de aliquo fama cum laude, ‘much talk about a person to his praise.’ When the talk is by the person himself, the word takes the signification ‘boast’.

Some time ago in this journal I asked for light on this common phrase of Lucretius, quoting three of its occurrences, and being especially interested in the last : 6, 230 Et liquidum puncto facit aes in tempore et aurum.

The bilingual Philoxenus Glossary drew some of its materials from Festus de Signif. Verb. and occasionally mentions his name. Its Festus glosses have been collected in a Jena dissertation by Dammann. The Abolita Glossary seems to have begun with Festus excerpts. Before we can glean from these two glossaries every available scrap of evidence about Festus, we must try to complete and correct them. For of the Philoxenus Glossary we have practically only one MS., and that of the ninth century. (...) It must have omitted many items and perverted the words of many others. The Abolita Glossary was associated with another, the Abstrusa Glossary, in Spain, and this composite collection passed into Italy. The MSS. are, we may say, only two, and of each a certain number of leaves are missing. The older and better MS., an uncial codex of the eighth century, was written apparently in Central Italy; the other was written two centuries later at Monte Cassino. They show us Abol. not in its original form, but rearranged in a not too strict alphabetical order. The St. Gall Glossary was compiled from Philox., the composite Abstr.-Abol., and supplies some of those Festus glosses of Philox. and Abol. which are omitted in our MSS. It seems to have been a Bobbio compilation. Our best MS. was written in rude uncials at St. Gall in the eighth century. (shrink)

The wholesome severity of publishers' regulations restricted the small Teubner edition of Festus almost to the actual text of the archetype MSS. of Festus and his epitomator Paulus. The flimsy material to be picked up from mediaeval glossaries was excluded from this small and solid structure and reserved for the ampler space and freer air of a second volume, a volume which should attempt a reconstruction of Festus from Paulus' excerpts, like an antiquarian's reconstruction of the Forum from the ruins (...) that now remain. In Goetz' Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum we have apographs of the chief MS. of each important glossary, and in his Thesaurus Glossarum Emendatarum we have all the glosses edited and arranged in dictionary form; but much spade-work has to be done before these glosses can be used by an editor of Festus. Some has been done already by a pupil of Goetz in a Jena dissertation, who shows the so-called Philoxenus Glossary to be compiled in part from Festus, and collects and emends its Festus glosses. Yet even this piece of work is not complete. For our unique MS. of Philox., a mere ninth-century MS., is an imperfec record of that large bilingual collection which has left so many traces of itself in the glossaries of the British Isles and of those parts of the Continent which received English or Irish culture. The Ab Absens Glossary, for example, printed by Goetz from a North Frankish MS. of Charlemagne's time, has a number of Festus glosses from this collection which are not recorded in our MS. of Philox. and are accordingly ignored by Dammann. (shrink)

Terence was studied, though not so much as Virgil, in monastery-schools. Their magistri bestirred themselves to get aid for pupils. Some famous magister— we know not who—had written, between the lines or in the margins, interpretations of difficult words in at least the three opening plays of the MS. which he used—Andr., Ad., Eun.—if not in all. These interpretations were collected from his MS. and found their way into many monastery-libraries. Goetz has published these glossae collectae of Terence from a (...) tenth century MS. in Vol. V. of his Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum, pp. 529–539; Mr. Austin has added more from a Leyden MS., written apparently in Belgium or Holland, c. 800–815 A.D.. Probably Dr. Theander will add a further batch from a Paris MS.. (shrink)

Nomina Sacra : Versuch einer Geschichte der christlichen Kürzung. Von Ludwig Traube, o. ö. Professor der Philologie an der Universitat, München.. Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1907. Pp. x + 295. M. 15.Vorlesungen und Abhandlungen. Von Ludwig Traube. Herausgegeben von Franz Boll. Erster Band. Zur Paläographie und Handschriftenkunde. Herausgegeben von Paul Lehmann. Mit biographischer Einleitung von Franz Boll. Munich: C. H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. 1909. Pp. lxxv+263.

Lvcilivs 11191 is preserved for us in Isid. Etym. XIX, iv, 10, where, amongst the articles of a ship's equipment, the plummet of Herodotus is mentioned, with this illustration from Lucilius:Hunc catapiratem puer eodem deforet unctum,plumbi paucillum rudus linique mataxam.