PREFACE. Xxix 



a fair practical sense, for tlie purpose they had in view, 

 pupils in old England receive! instruction in Greek, 

 and though learning decayed in times of distress, still 

 there existed some who wished to acquire this know- 

 ledge, and some who were willing to give it. Some day 

 the monstrous compounds, and the absurd spellings of 

 our scientific nomenclature, pretending to be Greek, and 

 a dozen other weak points of the day on this subject, 

 will be regarded as proofs of barbarism. 



It appears, therefore, that the leeches of the Angles 

 and Saxons had the means, by personal industry or by 

 the aid of others, of arriving at a competent knowledge 

 of the contents of the works of the Greek medical 

 writers. Here, in this volume, the results are visible. 

 They keep, for the most part, to the diagnosis and 

 the theory ; they go back in the prescriptions to the 

 easier remedies ; for whether in Galenos or others 

 three was a chapter on the svTrogio-Ta, the "parabilia," 

 the resources of country practitioners, and of course, 

 even now, expensive medicines are not prescribed for 

 poor patients. 



On the margin of the pages are some private marks, I'rivate marks, 

 such as may be observed on the facsimile page. The 

 pm'port of these marks is evident at fol. 56 a., chap. 

 Ixxv., which has something near a H with " totum " ; 

 again, at Ixxvi. with " totum," at fol. 5Q b., chap. Ixxx., 

 the figure in the middle of the facsimile margin with 

 " uotum," fol. 57 a., top line of Ixxxiii. an I. nearly, 

 with " corum." These were plainly memoranda secretly 

 indicating the author from whom the passages so 

 marked were taken, and " totum " means that the whole 

 article was taken from that source. The token nearly 

 an I. occurs at fol. 9 b., at the beginning of ii. ; again 

 at fol. 31 a., at the end of the folio ; again at I. Ixxxiii. 

 with " totum " and the Roman numeral xviii. twice ; 

 again at fol. 94 b., line 8, eye to milre feocum men ; 

 again at fol. 126 b., to chapter Ixvii. These references 

 VOL. IT. c 



