52 MEMOIR OF GESNER. 



Tragus, Fuchius, Cordus, Csesalpinus, Clausius, 

 Turner, and Gesner. They began to study in the 

 fields, and instead of confining themselves to the 

 closet and the musty glosses of the scholiast, en- 

 deavoured to peruse the illuminated page of Nature 

 herself. 



The original motive with most of these, was still, 

 perhaps, the laudable one of improving the materia 

 medica. Gesner made great exertions for this pur- 

 pose, and discovered many useful remedies, some of 

 which, with slight modifications, are still in use. 

 Like Sir Humphrey Davy, he frequently made 

 himself the subject of his own experiments, and, as 

 happened on several occasions with the eminent 

 philosopher just named, he once nearly killed him- 

 self by an over dose of the root of doronicum. 

 When he recovered, he amused his friends by an 

 account of his sensations while under its influence. 

 But although the sanatory properties of herbs may 

 have first led most of these individuals to investi- 

 gate them, they soon ceased to be restricted by that 

 consideration, and zealously studied the subject, as 

 it ought to be studied, for its own sake, and irre- 

 spectively of the benefit that might arise from it in 

 any economical point of view. 



Several works on botanical subjects have been 

 already named as edited by Gesner for his friends, 

 as well as an original work of his own, " De Lu- 

 nariis, &c." His earliest botanical work was entitled 

 " Enchiridion Historiae Plantarum, ordine Alpha- 

 betico, ex Dioscoride sumtis descriptionibus, et 



