34 DIVI BOTANICI. 



physic, the plant preserved the reputation conferred on it by Musa ; 

 and, for more than eighteen centuries, it has been valued for its effi- 

 cacy as a medicinal agent, in the same cases as those wherein this 

 experienced physician recommended its employment. Thirty-nine 

 of his prescriptions are introduced into " the first printed botanical 

 work* of any consequence or popularity in England," in the shape of 

 a translation characteristic of the language early in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury. They may be exemplified : thus, " agaynst feuer quartayn, 

 thre dragmes of this powdre of Bethonie and an vnce of Baccatu 

 laury or Bay beryes, with thre cyates of warm water, gyuen to the 

 pacyent before the houre of his axces, heletb him wdut grefe." 

 Likewise, " agaynst podagre, take water that Bethonie is soden in 

 and drynke it often, and lay the herbe playsterwyse vpon the fete, 

 it appeaseth ye payne" of gout " meruaylously as they say that haue 

 proued it." Prolonged and various attention to the operation of this 

 plant as a medicine and to its effects, has enabled instructed observ- 

 ersf to limit its exhibition, and to define the sphere of its usefulness. 

 Tried in this way, it may now be considered as a mild, warm, aroma- 

 tic bitter, which, in an electuary or infusion, acts as a pleasant altera- 

 tive, tonic, or aperient, according to the form or composition under 

 which it is administered. 



Another subject engaged the philanthropy of Musa: this was an 

 essay on the Prevention of Disease,;}: forming a sketch of the rules 



* The Gretc Herball, whiche geveth parfyt knowledge and understandying 

 of all manner of Herbes and there gracious vertues ; folio, London, 1526 — 

 The arrangement is alphabetical. 



•f Dr. Charles Alston's Lectures on the Natural History of Drugs, their vir- 

 tues and doses ; two volumes, 4to, London, 1770; Vol. ii, p. 88 Mr. William 



Meyrick's New Family Herbal, enumerating the vegetables that are remark- 

 able for medical efficacy, with an account of their virtues ; 8vo, Birming- 

 ham, 1790 ; p. 41. 



X This appears under the form of an Epistle addressed to Maecenas ; it 

 was published at Norimberg, in 1538, with a title shewing it to contain Mu- 



sa's directions De Sanitate Tuenda, or the Art of Preserving Health. He 



wrote several books, plures libros; but, with exception of the two fragments 

 previously mentioned, th ty have all perished amid the " ruins of empires" 

 and the barbarities which paralysed the ancient advances of European civiliz- 

 ation. Galen distinguished him as the best authority on the composition of 

 medicines, and strengthens this judgment with numerous illustrative selec- 

 tions from works of Musa's, then existent. He was accustomed to prescribe 

 the Cichorium Intybus, or Wild Succory, a beautiful and efficient herb, for 

 diseases of the liver attended with jaundice, and his practice might still be 

 imitated with safety and success. Another of his vegetable remedies was 

 derived from the Male and Marsh Ferns, and he depended on its activity for 



