A PRAISE OF HERBAL MEDICINE

C Lastly: let us for now pass over in passing Crateias, Bithynus, Iollas, Heraclides, Andreas of Chios, Niceratus, Petronius Niger, and Diodotus—all of whom are mentioned by Dioscorides A 1st-century Greek physician and botanist, author of 'De Materia Medica' and who also wrote "Myriads" original: "Myriades," referring to books containing thousands of plant descriptions on the subject of herbs.

Now, if antiquity adds anything to the glory of a subject—and it adds a great deal—then nothing is more ancient than herbal medicine, and nothing was more celebrated among ancient authors. For "mixed" medicines complex compounds of many ingredients were scarcely held in second place by them, being a more recent invention of overly curious men. Lest this be thought a mere fable, we shall prove it first by examples, and soon by authority.

Chiron the Centaur, after he had received Hercules as a guest (as Pliny Pliny the Elder, author of the 'Natural History' tells us), was accidentally injured when one of Hercules’ arrows fell onto his foot while he was handling the weapons. He was healed by no other medicine for the wound than the herb Centaury original: "Centaurea"; this remedy was so effective for him that to this day it retains its name from him The name "Centaurea" is derived from the Centaur Chiron.

Similarly, consider Machaon A famous physician in Greek mythology, son of Asclepius when he was called to Agamemnon. What kind of medicines do we think he applied amidst such a great army, in such a vast place, with such slaughter and such tumults, if not perhaps "simple" medicines? For thus Homer leaves it in the Iliad, Book 4:

But when he saw the wound where the bitter arrow fell,
after sucking out the blood, he skillfully sprinkled on soothing medicines original: "ἤπια φάρμακα" (ēpia pharmaka),
which Chiron, with friendly intent, had once given to his father.

Likewise also Paeon, who is said to have applied "pain-killing medicines" original: "ὀδυνήφατα φάρμακα" (odynēphata pharmaka) to Pluto. And even Helen, wishing to bring forgetfulness of sorrow to Telemachus, is recorded by the Poet to have applied nothing other than that noble Nepenthes. D That is an Egyptian herb (as Pliny says) with no other mixture.

Straightway she cast into the wine a medicine from which they drank,
the Nepenthes A legendary drug that banishes sorrow; the name literally means "anti-sorrow" in Greek, which stills all grief and anger and brings forgetfulness of every ill;
whoever should swallow it down when it is mixed in the bowl...

I call "simple medicines" original: "simplicia pharmaca" or "simple herbs" the roots, seeds, flowers, and barks: and those compositions of them boiled or soaked in wine, oil, water, honey, vinegar, and sugar—compositions in which one or two, or three or five things are not confused together, but rather where sometimes twenty ingredients are mixed together without discrimination or judgment. I believe that this latter kind of pharmacy was unknown to those ancients, or at the very least, they grew strong by a different selection of simples.

But I return to the miracles of herbs. The same poet Homer testifies that there is such great power in the Lotus that it makes one forget even their fatherland and children; yet, according to another poet, it is so sweet that it allows no one to be unmindful of it.

But they wished to feed on the lotus;
and whoever of them ate the honey-sweet fruit of the lotus,
no longer wished to bring back word or to return,
but they wanted to stay there with the Lotus-eater men,
grazing on the lotus, forgetful of their journey home. original: from Odyssey, Book 9

Moreover, Pliny, citing Xanthus (an author of histories), affirms as an absolute certainty that a dragon's young was once killed and immediately called back to life by the herb Balis original: "Bali", provided by the parent dragon itself. He also records that a certain Tillo, whom a dragon had killed, was restored by the same herb.

To this also pertains that account by Juba Juba II, a scholarly king of Numidia and Mauretania in the same Pliny, where it is found that...