CHAPTERS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF HEPATICOLOGY. 131 



Pliny's words^ concerning *'Lichen" are a little more 

 explicit than those of any of his predecessors. After men- 

 tioning various remedies for "tetter" — the disease lichen of 

 the Greeks — he concludes thus: **But the herb Lichen is 

 preferred to all these, whence its name. It grows in stony 

 places, has one broad leaf at the root, one small stem, and 

 long dependent leaves [or, according to a marginal reading, 

 one long stem and small dependent leaves.] This removes 

 the scars. It is bruised and laid on with honey. There is 

 another kind of lichen wholly adhering to rocks, like a moss, 

 which is also applied. This, dropped into a wound, stays the 

 flow of blood, and when smeared on allays inflamation. It 

 also cures King's Evil when applied as an ointment with 

 honey to the mouth and tongue." It requires no imagination 

 to see in this first plant the thallus, peduncle and carpo- 

 cephalum, of Marchantia polymorpha, though it must be 

 confessed that the words would be capable of a different 



1 



interpretation if they were not associated with the name 

 Lichen, which had acquired a certain more or less definite 

 meaning before it was borrowed from the Greeks by Pliny. 



The second plant may be presumed to be a true lichen. 



The centuries intervening between Pliny and the diffusion 

 in Europe of the art of printing do not seem to have added 

 much to the very small beginnings in Hepaticology made by 

 the Greeks and Eomans. With printing, came the publica- 

 tion of the classic works of Aristotle, Theophrastus, Dioscori- 

 des, Pliny, Giilenus, and others, both with and without 

 annotations. Then followed scientific books of varying 

 degrees of originality, becoming gradually more complete 

 and accurate. 



Among the treasures of the library which the writer has 

 the privilege of consulting is Otto Brunfels' "Herbarum 

 VivsB Eicones." The second part of this work bears the title, 

 ''Novi Herbarii Tomus II,'' and the volume referred to is 

 made up of the first edition of Tomus II (Strasburg, 1531) 



2 Historia Mundi, hb. 26, cap. L Edition seen was pubUshed at Lyons 

 in 1606. 



