HISTORY OF BOTANY. 13 



fore mention only one physician as having any importance 

 to our subject for six centuries after Galen. This is Paulus, 

 who is not only frequently quoted by the more recent 

 herbalists, but whose works are reckoned amongst the most 

 valuable relics of ancient science by those of our own time, 

 and were considered worthy of translation by Mr. Francis 

 Adams, and were published by the Sydenham Society in 

 1844. 



Paulus ^gineta, or Paul of ^gina, because he is said to 

 have been born in that island, was a celebrated Greek 

 physician, about whose life little is known, or precisely the 

 time when he lived, though it is supposed by the best 

 authorities to have been at the end of the sixth or the 

 beginning of the seventh century. His great work, in seven 

 books, which is at once a compilation of pre-existing know- 

 ledge and a record of his own observations, — which seem to 

 have been gathered in wide travels through different 

 countries, — preserves his memory in respect, and as he may 

 •be hereafter quoted it is necessary to take this brief notice 

 of him ; otherwise there would be nothing of any importance 

 to mention between Galen and the Arab physicians. 



