Blair Collection > Celtic gleanings, or, Notices of the history and literature of the Scottish Gael

LECTURE III. 97
the other in the MS., seem not known in Ireland,
at least they are not found in O'Keilly's report
on Irish writers. From the place given to Con-
way's poetry in the MS., it would appear as if
the MS. itself was of about the same age with
the poet, — the thirteenth century. It cannot be
of an older date, for it was at that period the
Bible was divided into chapters, and there is
continual reference, in the theological portion,
to the chapters of its different books ; nor can
it be later than the fifteenth century, since
it was then the chapters were divided into
verses, and to these there is no reference what-
soever.
Among existing ancient Gaelic MSS. we
have several lives of saints, most of them, in all
probability, transcripts from the Irish, There
is one in the Advocates' Library thus tran-
scribed — a life of St Findchua, a noted Irish
saint. This MS. would appear to have been
written about the year 1350.
There is another class of MSS. which cannot
be passed over in any account, however brief, of
ancient Celtic Literature. These are MSS. con-
taining treatises on medical subjects, and some
other relative branches of general science.
Both Scotland and Ireland were distinguished
for their doctors. These were men quite abreast
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