18-1 DIVI BOTANICI. 



Roman phytographer* inserts these curious and gratifying observa- 

 tions : — " No longer ago than in our forefathers' daies," he relates, 

 " Juba, king of Mauritania, found out the herb Euphorbia, which 

 he so called after the name of his own physitian Euphorbus, brother 

 to that learned Musa, physitian to Augustus Caesar, who saued the 

 life of the said emperor. These two brethren physitians joined to- 

 gether in counsell, and gaue direction for to wash the body all ouer 

 in much cold water, thereby to knit and bind the pores of the skin ; 

 for, before their time, the manner was to bathe in hot water only, 

 as we may see plainly in Homer the poet. But now, to return vnto 

 our herb Euphorbia, the foresaid king Juba wrote one entire book, 

 at this day extant, wherein he doth nothing else but expressly set 

 forth the commendable vertues and properties of this one herb. He 

 found the same upon the Mountain Atlas where, he says, it is to 

 be seen bearing leaues resembling branc-vrsin : so strong and forci- 

 ble it is, that those who receive the juice issuing from it, must stand 

 a good way off; for the manner is, to launce it first, and then pre- 

 sently to retire backe, and so at the end of a long pole to put vnder 

 it a trey made of a kid's stomach for a receptory, into which there 

 runneth forth out of the plant, a white liquor like unto milke, 

 which, when it is dried and growne together, resembleth in shew 

 a lumpe of frankincense. They that have the gathering of this 

 juice, called Euphorbium, find this benefit thereby, that they see 

 more clearly than they did before : an excellent remedy this is 

 against the venom of serpents ; for whatsoever place is stung by 

 them, make an incision at the upper part of the wound and apply 

 thereto this medicinable liquor, and it will surely cure it." Several 

 inferences, some probable, others certain, naturally arise out of these 

 statements. Hence then, it would appear that Euphorbus had at 

 first been subjected to the same hard fortune as Antonius Musa his 

 brother, in being thrown into a servile condition : that he co-ope- 

 rated in the unusual but successful method of treating Augustus 

 with cold affusions : that he accompanied Juba as his physician, on 

 the restoration of this prince's ancestral dominions by the emperor's 

 munificence : that Euphorbus assisted at the discovery, or was him- 

 self the discoverer, of the vegetable which his sovereign then styled 

 Euphorbia by an express denomination : and that, in this way, the 

 king manifested an affectionate generosity, in honouring the merits 

 of his medical officer by the rites of a *' deification" which assigned 



* Dr. Holland's English version of Pliny's Natural History of the World 

 Vol. ii, p. 222 ; and Book xxv, Chapter vii of the original. 



