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XXXV. 
A COMMENTARY ON THE COLLOQUIES OE GARCIA De 
OETA, ON THE SIMPLES, DRUGS, AND MEDICINAL 
SUBSTANCES OE INDIA. Br V. BALL, LL.D., E.R.S., 
Director of the Science and Art Museum, Dublin. 
[Read January 13, 1890.] 
Paet L— introduction. 
Gaecia de Oeta^ was educated as a physician in Alcala and Salamanca, 
and practised for a time in Lisbon, where he also occupied a University 
Chair, which, according to one account {Biograph. Univer.), was of 
philosophy, and to another [JSfouv. BiograpJi. Genl.) of Mathematics. 
In the year 1534 he embarked for India, having had conferred 
upon him the title of Chief Physician to the King. He was first 
attached to the suite of Martin AfEonso de Souza, who commanded the 
fleet, and was present with him at the establishment of the Portuguese 
fort and harbour at Diu, in Gujarat, which are still the property 
of Portugal. 
In the year 1563, by which time he had acquired an intimate know- 
ledge of the drugs, both indigenous and imported, which were then in 
use in India, he yielded to the solicitation of his friends and prepared 
for publication, at first in Latin, but afterwards in Portuguese, the work 
by which his name has been perpetuated. He thus avoided, as he 
himself hoped would be the case, being one of those men who, like 
the beasts that perish, leave nothing for the benefit and instruction of 
their posterity. 
His book is sometimes referred to as being the first ever printed in 
India, but Brunet points out that one at least, G. de Leao's Compendio 
da doct. Christm,' i^veceded it, having been issued at Goa, from the same 
press, two years earlier, namely, in 1561. 
^ His name was Latinized by some of his commentators into Garcias ah Horto, 
and in French we find the forms, de la Huerta and Dujardin I 
