412 PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY, ETC. 
were known to them. But as soon as they, began to 
disperse here and there, and to require more ne- 
cessaries, they were obliged to seek for other ali- 
ments. Several diseases, the natural consequences 
of a violation of the laws of nature, obliged them to 
look for remedies, which they luckily discovered in 
the vegetable kingdom, either by accident, or through 
animals Thus the inhabitants of Ceylon learned 
the use of Ophiorrhiza. A small animal, (Viverra 
Ichneuman), which feeds on poisonous serpents, eats, 
as soon as bitten by one of them, the root of this 
plant. The Ceylonese tried it, and found it an ex- 
cellent remedy against such a bite. In like manner 
became the Americans acquainted with the use of 
Aristolochia anguicida and Serpentaria. ‘Thus the 
knowledge of some medicinal plants commenced. 
The father shewed them to the son, the son to the 
grandson, and so forth. By tradition, the only 
means at those times of preserving things from ob- 
livion, thely names were communicated to the far- 
ihest generations.. | 
In the East, at first the only seat of erudition, 
most care was taken to acquire a knowledge of the 
beneficial or noxious. qualities of different natural 
productions. Lhe Chaldeans communicated their 
knowledge to the Egyptians, these to the Greeks. 
Amongst the Greeks, where indeed real science 
first originated, Aesculapius attempted by means 
derived fan the vegetable kingdom to cure some 
diseases. But medicine soon became intimately con- 
nected with religion, In the temples dedicated to 
the worship of their gods, the prescriptions of Aescu- 
lapius 
