DIVI BOTANId. 185 



him an early position among the herbarists whose names are com- 

 memorated in the appellations of plants. 



Euphorbia the Plant. — Reasons have been deduced from an 

 ancient writing for the conjecture, that the name Eupkorbium was 

 applied to some vegetable production, previously to the time when 

 Juba and his physician were engaged in their botanical researches. 

 When this proposition is entertained, its grounds are taken from 

 an interpretation of certain enigmatical Greek verses, ascribed to 

 Herrenius Philo,* a physician and philosopher of Tarsus, who in- 

 vented the Philonium, a celebrated anodyne composition. His me- 

 trical instructions for preparing this medicine, are abundantly ob- 

 scure ; and, in the original version, they constitute an exquisite an- 

 thological curiosity. For instance, one of the mystical ingredients is 

 " the slayer of the son of Mencetius among the Trojans;" and another 

 stands for interpretation, as the fair and fragrance-breathing hair of 

 the god-like one, whose blood glistens in mercurial plants ; which, in 

 terms intelligible, may stand for the juice of white poppies or opi- 

 um, even more deservedly renowned than Mercury's Caduceus, for 

 its somniferous energies. 



Some commentators on this singular production are inclined to 

 consider the "Slai/er of Mencetiades" as the symbolical representative 

 of Euphorbus the Trojan chief so justly applauded for his patriotic 

 heroism ; and, on this interpretation, they regard him as the person- 

 age for whose honour the herb Euphorbia had its distinctive name 

 originally appropriated. Now, by all history, it is made evident 

 that, except in the machinery of a poetical fiction, Euphorbus can- 

 not be held for the slayer of Patroclus, because this friend of Achil- 

 les certainly fell by the hand of Hector, who seized the armour of 

 his lifeless enemy. Moreover, Philo's celebrity was nearly coeval 

 with that of Antonius Musa and his brother's: indeed, it was later 

 than their's according to the best chronology :t there would, therefore, 

 be no improbability in concluding, that Juba's monograph on the 

 Euphorbia and the history of its discovery were known to Philo 

 himself, who might choose to elaborate an allegory exhibiting an 

 ancient name as the prototype of a new-made appellation, in the 

 wildness of his predilection for the display of fantastic imager)'. 



• Stephanus Byzantinus : De Urbibus, grace, et latine, curis Berhelii et 

 Gronovii ; folio, Lugd, Bat. 1694. Daniel le Clerc : Histoire de la Medecine ; 

 4to, Amsterdam, 1702; Part III, p. 14, where an attempt to unmystify the 

 Philonium may be examined. 



t Euphorbus and Musa cured Augustus, who died in A.D. 14, and Philo 

 flourished in A.D. 23, according to the most accurate history of medicine. 



vol nil., no. xxiv. 21 



