30 DIVI BOTAN1CI. 



lapis,* who treated the arrow-wound inflicted on /Eneas, by an un- 

 known hand in the fierce conflict which terminated the Lavinian war. 

 When the hero was disabled by this accident, his attendants supported 

 him, as he retired from the field to his tent, leaning on his long spear. 

 Here, the anguished prince was received with prompt and dutiful 

 solicitude by lapis who forthwith entered on the operations re- 

 quisite for the cure of the wound. On this occasion, however, the 

 Healer's skill and zeal are unexpectedly thwarted by supernatural in- 

 terference ; for the gods had agreed that a miracle should confer a 

 divine lustre on that scene which was to complete the beginning of 

 the Latin name, and its glorious destiny. Whether therefore it be 

 considered as a description of some ancient chirurgical usages, as an 

 illustration of the styptic powers ascribed of yore to the Cretan Dit- 

 tany,t or as expression of the poet's affectionate gratitude to his 

 pious and illustrious friend, this instructive episodic scene merits un- 

 usual regard from the admirers of recondite and archaeological inves- 

 tigation. 



Among the earliest notices of Medicine, historical or traditionary, 



* Virgil'ti JZneidos, lib. xii, v. 391 — 429 — All his writings shew that the 

 principle of friendship glowed in the mind of Virgil with a pure and inextin- 

 guishable fervour ; and the evidences which prove that he designed to frame 

 an acceptable character of Augustus in the one he assigns to iEneas, are 

 equally applicable to the conclusion, that he was desirous of honouring his 

 favourite Musa — ante alios carior, dulcior, doctior, jucundior — by the amiable 

 and excellent personal as well as professional attainments he ascribes to la- 

 pis in the admirable episode where this generous and enlightened physician 

 is introduced. Who was the prototype of Virgil's lapis ? As a proposition, 

 this is discussed with great ingenuity to a regular consequence, by Bishop 

 Atterburv, in an essay intituled Reflections on the Character of lapis in Virgil ; 

 or the Character of Anionins Musa, Physician to Augustus : it forms one of the 

 bishop's miscellaneous tracts, and is inserted in Warton's edition of the 

 Works of Virgil; vol. iv, 257 — 2/6. lapis means generally the Healer: it 

 is a poetical term constructed from the Greek verb 'ldafuu, medeor, to heal, 

 to cure diseases and wounds : from the same source are derived 'Wr^U, medi- 

 cus, a physician, and Archiater, the " physician in ordinary to the king," em- 

 peror, or sovereign of a state. 



■f This is the Origanum Dictamuus of the Linniean system. From the re- 

 motest antiquity, both gods and men held this plant in the highest estima- 

 tion as an infallible vulnerary, from its reputed powers of restraining haemor- 

 rhage and hastening the cure of wounds. Gathered on Mount Ida, and con- 

 veyed with divine velocity, the Dittany formed a prime ingredient in the 

 panaceated fomentation prepared by the " Goddess-mother," and charmed 

 by her into the inconscious hand of the Healer, who discovered its source by 

 its effects, and piously acknowledged the miraculous energy. 



