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the copyist, of Galen, of whose Materia Medica, as well as 
of that of Uioscorides, he has given an alphabetical epitome, 
arranged under the heads of plants, minerals, and animals. 
Among these I do not perceive any articles not known to 
his predecessors. Galen himself, though so voluminous a 
writer, takes his Materia Medica almost entirely from 
Dioscorides ; and though sufficiently interested in the 
subject to have visited Ccelo-Syria to see the Balsam-tree, 
I find no drugs which are not contained in the work of the 
former. Indian medicines are, however, abundantly pre- 
scribed in the compounds which he enumerates, and among 
them, some which are called Indian, as " Indicum Tharsei 
chirurgi emplastrum. — Cera?, resinse fricta?, picis aridse, 
bituminis liquidi Zacynthii, singulorum lib. ij. cerussae, 
aeruginis, chalictedis, misyos peregrini, melanteriae, aluminis 
et scissilis et rotundi, galla; omphacitidis, malicorii, rhei, 
thuris, singulorum silibram, aceti quantum sufficit ;" also, 
" Collyrium Indicum aerianum inscriptum ;" and " Indicum 
basilicon inscriptum indicus lapis :" — that Indian medi- 
cines were much used in Rome, even prior to his time, we 
know from Pliny, who inveighs against their introduction : 
" Arabia atque India in medio aestimantur, ulcerique parvo 
medicina a Rubro Mare imputatur." 
From Pliny we might adduce numerous instances of the 
knowledge which the ancients possessed of the natural 
productions of India, but as his information is chiefly 
derived from earlier sources, it will be better introduced 
when we have to notice these. But in his account of the 
country and climate, the names of towns and rivers, as 
well as in his description of the animals and plants of India, 
we find much correct information intermixed with monstrous 
fables. This naturally diminishes our faith in the other 
parts of his statement : but as a natural historian, he 
seems to have thought it necessary to repeat what he found 
