PREFACE. 



XXVll 



This is to be compared with Lb. I. xviii. The cor- 

 respondence is so close as to leave no doubt but that 

 the work before us drew from Paulus, or from one 

 of the Greek authors, from whom he compiled his 

 work. The number of passages the Saxon thus draws 

 from the Greek is great ; they would make perhaps one 

 fourth of the first two books, and the question of course 

 occurs strongly to the mind whether they came direct 

 from the study of Greek manuscripts. 



At first sight a passage ^ which says that the ficus Internal 

 in the eyes is called *' on Iseben" chymosis, may seem *^^''^°^°°^' 

 to resolve the question as that this author copied Latin 

 works. So it may have been ; but the place is not 

 conclusive, those words may come from Oxa, Dun, or 

 other writers of the native school of medicine ; or Iseben, 

 leben, may be used as it often is in a loose sense for 

 language,^ foreign language. It is not at this point, 

 that it will repay our trouble to stay for consideration : 

 we shall much more profitably form an opinion whether 

 the Saxon leeches in general had access to the sense 

 of the Greek authors, than whether in particular the 

 author of these books knew anytliing of them. If the 

 best men among our leeches of the tenth century could 

 avail themselves of what Paulus of /Egina, Alexander 

 of Tralles, and Philagrios wrote, that will suffice to 

 raise our estimate of that day into approbation. 



M. Brecliillet Jourdain ^ has shewn that in those Greek 

 early days, before the invention of printing, the wise beaming, 

 men of the middle ages possessed Latin translations of 

 Aristoteles. There was therefore no reason for their not 

 possessing other authors. Some am.ong them were able 

 to translate, some to speak Greek. The Byzantine 

 authors in our own hands come down to a late date. 



' Lb. p. 38. 



- Ealle his rpjieca'S an lyben, 

 Genesis xi. 6. 



' Recherches critiques sur Page 

 et origine des traductions Latines. 

 d'Aristote. Paris. 1819. 



