xxiv PREFACE. 



element; the application of vinegar with prussic acid^ for 

 head ache is practical ; the great fondness for elecampane, 

 Inula lieleniiiin, is parallel to the frequent employment, 

 at the present day, of Arnica. But it would be vain to 

 defend the prescriptions, some are altogether blunders, 

 and the fashion of medical treatment changes so much 

 that the prescriptions of Meade and Radcliffe are now- 

 condemned as absurd. It suffices that Saxon leeches 

 endeavoured by searching the medical records of foreign 

 languages to qualify themselves for their profession. 



Age. The character of the writing fixes, as far as I venture 



on an opinion, this copy of the work to the former half 

 of the tenth century ; some learned in MSS., who have 

 favoured me v/ith an opinion, say the latter half, 960 

 to 980. My own judgment is chiefly based upon com- 

 parison with books we know to have been written about 

 900. 



KingiElfred. The inquisitiveness of men at that period about the 

 methods in medicine pursued in foreign countries is 

 illustrated by the very curious and interesting citation 

 from Helias, patriarch of Jerusalem.^ The account given 

 has strong marks of genuineness. We will assume that 

 King iElfred had sent to Jerusalem requesting from 

 the patriarch some good recipes ; for it would be not 

 in the manner of mens ordinary dealings for the head 

 of the church in the Holy Land to obtrude upon a 

 distant king any drugs or advice of the kind. He 

 returns then a recommendation of scamony, which is the 

 juice of a Syrian convolvulus, of gutta ammoniaca, a 

 sort of liquid volatile salts, of spices, of gum dragon, 

 of aloes, of galbanum, of balsam, of petroleum, of the 

 famous Greek compound preparation called S>jpajt»j, and 

 of the magic virtues of alabaster.^ These drugs are good 

 in themselves, and such as a resident in Syria would 

 naturally recommend to others. The present author 



> Lb. I. i. 10 and 12. I » On the Phoenician origin of this 



2 Lb. p. 290. I -(vord, see SSpp. p. 285. 



