MERCURI1L1S, 
1438 
fallen into the mlftake of feveral medical theories, of 
denying the reality of contagion ; and their counfels were 
faid to have been productive of exteniive milchief. Ne- 
verthelefs, his reputation appears to have fuifered little 
from this error; for he was invited by Ferdinand the 
grand duke of Tufcany, to fettle at Pifa, in 1599, where 
he was ordered a ftipend of eighteen hundred golden 
crowns, which was ultimately railed to two thouland. 
He had not refided long at Pil'a, however, before the fe- 
vere calculous affe&ions, under which he laboured, ren¬ 
dered him incapable of attending to his profelfional and 
profeilbrial duties, and he retired to his native town. He 
lunk under his diforder in 1606; and was interred, with 
great honours, in a chapel which he had himfelf ereCted 
at Forli. He left a large property in money and efteCts, 
among which was a valuable collection of pictures ; and 
he made a great number of charitable bequefts. 
Mercuriale was a voluminous writer, as the following 
catalogue of his works will evince. He was a learned 
commentator on Hippocrates, and edited a claffified col¬ 
lection of his works. Like the learned of his age, how¬ 
ever, he was bigotted to the doCtrines of the ancients, 
and fond of hypothetical reafoning, to the difparagement 
of found obl’ervation. Plis firft publication was a traCt 
entitled Nomothefaurus, feu Ratio laCtandi Infantes. His 
fecond, the work De Arte Gymnaftica, before mentioned. 
3. Variarum LeCtionum in Medicinae Scriptoribus et aliis, 
Libri iv. Venice, 1571. 4. De Morbis Cutaneis, et omni¬ 
bus Corporis humani Excrementis, 1572. 5. TraCtatus de 
Maculis peftiferis et Hydrophobia; Bade, 1577. 6. De 
Peltilentia in univerfum, prsefertim verb de Veneta et 
Patavina; Venice, 15-77. 7. Hippocratis Opera Grsece et 
Latine, 1578. 8. De Morbis Muliebribus PraeleCtiones; 
Bade, 1582. 9. De Morbis puerorum TraCtatus locuple- 
tidimi, Venice, 1583. 10. De Venenis et Morbis vene- 
nofis, 1584. 11. De Decoratione liber, 1585. 12. Con- 
fultationes et Refponla Medicinalia. Four volumes were 
fuccedively publilhed in 1587, 1590, and 1597; and were 
republilhed together after his death. 13. TraCtatus de 
Compodtione Medicamentorum, de Morbis Oculorum 
et Aurium, 1590. 14. De Hominis Generatione, 1597. 
35. Medicina PraCtica, feu de Cognofcendis, Difcernen- 
dis, et Curandis, omnibus Humani Corporis AffeCtibus; 
Frankfort, 1602, folio. All thefe works have been feve¬ 
ral times reprinted; and fome of them were feleCted after 
his death, and printed together, under the title of Opuf- 
ctila aurea et Jelediora, Venice, 1644, folio. Eloij Diet. Hiji. 
de la Med. 
MERCURIA'LIS, f. [fo called from Mercury, who is 
faid to have firft difeovered it.] Mercury ; in botany, a 
genus of the clafs dioecia, order enneandria, natural or¬ 
der of tricoccae, (euphorbia;, JuJ)') Generic characters— 
Male. Calyx: perianthium three-parted; parts ovate- 
lanceolate, concave, fpreading. Corolla: none, unlefs 
the calyx be fo elteemed. Stamina; filaments nine or 
twelve, capillary, ftraight, the length of the calyx; an- 
theras globular, twin. Female. Calyx: perianthium as 
in the male. Corolla: none ; neCtanes, two awl-fiiaped 
points, one on each fide of the germ, impreffed on the 
groove of the germ. Piftillum: germ roundifli, com- 
prelled, fcored on each fide, hifpid; fiyles two, reflex, 
horned, hifpid;.Itigmas acute-, reflex. Pericarpium : cap- 
fide roundilh, lhaped like the ferotum, twin, two-celled. 
Seeds : folitary, roundifli.— Efj'ential Cha racier. Male. Ca¬ 
lyx three-parted; corolla none; ftamina nine or twelve; 
anthers: globular, twin. Female. Calyx three-parted; 
corolla none; fiyles two; capfule dicoc.cous, two-celled, 
one-feeded. There- are eight fpecies. 
1. Mercurialis perennis, perennial or dog’s mercury j 
ftem quite Ample; leaves rugged. Root perennial, creep¬ 
ing, white, very fibrous. Stem upright, Ample, a foo.t 
high, leafy, naked below, round, thickell at the joints, 
with two projecting ridges, not running down from the 
leaf-ftalks, but from the joint between them, and termi¬ 
nating in the bofom of the pair bdow.. Leaves in oppo- 
fite pairs alternately from each fide of the ftem, ovate- 
lanceolate, wrinkled, ferrate, pale green ; the teeth blunt- 
ifn, and terminated by a whitilh gland, vilihle only with 
a magnifier. See Botany Plate VII. fig. 35. Flowers in 
the female few; in the male numerous, l'eflile, growing 
in a fort of whorl, and half furrounding the ftem. The 
male flowers have nine ftumens for the moft part: anthers 
firft yellow, afterwards becoming bluilh. The female 
flowers have the fiyles rough on the inner fide, with femi- 
tranfparent tubercles. Dr. Withering alks whether the 
neCtaries are not rather rudiments of imperfeCt ftamens. 
Seed of a brownilh purple colour. The male and female 
plants are rarely found intermixed, each fort ufually 
growing in large patches; whence it is probable that 
this plant, which increafes much by the root, rarely pro¬ 
duces perfeCt feeds. 
It is common in woods and under hedges, flowering 
from the end of March to the middle of May. In the 
third edition of Ray’s Synopiis there is a very circum- 
ftantial relation from fir Hans Sloane, of a man with his 
wife and three children experiencing highly deleterious 
effeCts from eating this plant fried with bacon. Mr. 
Miller affirms, that there have been many inftances of 
its poilonous quality, from perfons in the l'pring, during 
a lcarcity of greens, having boiled and eaten the leaves.. 
But he gives us no authority, and there are no inftances 
on record except the Angle one mentioned above. It 
would however be well to afeertain the faCt, becaufe it 
is a common plant; and the third fpecies, which is not 
unlike it, is coniidered as a pot-herb, and is fometimes 
ufed as an emollient. Linnaeus lays, that M. perennis 
is noxious to Iheep. With us, no quadruped leems to 
eat it. In drying it turns blue; and fteeped in water 
it affords a fine deep purple colour, but which, fays 
Dr. Stokes, is unhappily deftruCtible both by acids and 
alkalies, and recoverable by no means that he has been 
able to difeover. 
2. Mercurialis ambigua, intermediate or doubtful 
mercury : ftem brachiate; leayes fmoothifh; flowers in 
whorls, females and males. Root fibrous, annual. Stem 
a fpan high, upright, four-cornered, very linooth, and 
limply branched next the root. Branches very few, 
oppoiite, lliort, fpreading. Leaves oppofite, horizontal, 
cordate-ovate, equally ferrate ; ferratures fewer, remote: 
they are bluntiffi, ciliate, fmooth on both fides, veined, 
flat. Flowers axillary, feveral, cluftered, each on its pro¬ 
per pedicel: female Angle, opening firft; males feveral, 
(three or four,) lateral, in the fame axil with the female. 
Calyx of the male pale, fegments acute, entire, fmooth, 
fcarcely concave. In the female flower, the calyx is 
fmaller. Native of Spain, on the walls of Cadiz and 
Gibraltar. 
3. Mercurialis annua, annual or French mercury: 
ftem brachiate; leaves fmooth ; flowers in l’pikes. Root 
annual, fibrous, white. .Stem a foot or eighteen inches 
high, upright, fmooth, frequently tinged with purple, 
branched quite to the bottom, lwelled at the joints, 
Ibmewhat flattened; a prominent line runs on each fide 
Of the ftem, from one joint to another, alternately. 
Branches alternately oppofite, leafy, relembling the ftem. 
Leaves oppofite, ovate, bluntiffi, fpreading, having two 
glands at the bafe, bluntly and diftantly ferrate, when 
magnified appearing edged with hairs, light green, fome- 
what glofl'y, and veined: they are fometimes ovate- 
lanceolate, lanceolate, and even cordate. Petioles much 
lhorter than the leaves, fmooth, channelled above. Pe¬ 
duncles axillary, oppofite, upright, naked; in the male 
longer than the leaves, obfeurely four-cornered, produc¬ 
ing towards the top feveral round, feffile, fmall, clufters 
of flowers, having a ftrong virofe fimell, ibmewhat like 
that of elder: in the female the peduncle is lhorter than 
the leaves, and generally ihftains .two flowers : the calyx 
in both flowers is permanent; in the female the leaflets 
are a little fmaller. This may be diftinguifhed from per¬ 
ennial or dog’s mercury, by its annual root, its branched 
