172 FLORA HISTORICA. 



The Druids hold their power through the su- 

 perstition of the people, and as they were great 

 pretenders to magic and divination, they excited 

 the admiration, and took advantage of the igno- 

 rance and credulity of mankind, for by these arts 

 they pretended to work miracles and to exhibit 

 astonishing appearances in nature, as well as to 

 penetrate into the counsels of heaven. 



Divested of these pretended powers, there is 

 no doubt but that the Druids were better ac- 

 quainted with the medicinat properties of herbs 

 than any other class of men in their day, since 

 their residences being in the recesses of moun- 

 tains, groves and woods, where vegetable pro- 

 ductions were constantly courting their attention, 

 it is natural to suppose that they w^ould in some 

 measure become acquainted with the qualities 

 of plants in general. That the Druids of Gaul 

 and Britain applied themselves to this study and 

 made great use of herbs for medical purposes, 

 we have sufficient evidence, since we learn from 

 scattered hints in Pliny's Natural History, that 

 they sometimes extracted the juice of herbs and 

 plants, by bruising and steeping them in cold 

 water, and sometimes by infusion in wine ; that 

 they made potions and decoctions by boiling them 

 in water ; and we learn also that they frequently 

 dried certain herbs before infusing them, and that 

 they administered some plants by fumigations, 



