P R A I S E

C The Epistrites stone, when cast into boiling water, so tempers its fury that it immediately cools down. The virtues of the Emerald and the Magnet The loadstone, known for its magnetic properties are too well known for me to describe them further. Seek the powers of the rest from the authors themselves, especially Pliny, Dioscorides, and Albert Albertus Magnus, a 13th-century scholar who wrote extensively on the "secrets" of nature. Although these things lack credibility among some people, they fill us with even greater admiration for Almighty God and the medical art to the extent that they seem beyond belief; they force us to confess that what remains to be discovered is immense.

For my part, certainly, I do not lack faith in them. For when other similar things have been discovered and studied by us, why do we consider these alone to be trifles and deny them? The fault falls on us alone, either because we make no attempt to test them, or even if we greatly desire to do so, we do not recognize the herbs. What once happened to Thales Thales of Miletus, an early Greek philosopher while contemplating the stars—that he fell into a ditch—happens to us remarkably in medicine: while we search for the most hidden things in lands across the sea, we fail to recognize even the most humble herbs which we trample under our feet every day.

I shall therefore say nothing now of Panace The 'Panacea' or all-heal herb, nor of Dodecatheos The 'Twelve-Gods' herb, with which alone those ancients truly cured all diseases. I shall likewise say nothing of metals, which also have their own hidden active powers original: "ἐνεργείας". If I were to strive to recite them, perhaps ten tongues and ten mouths original: "γλῶσσαι δέκα μὲν στόματα δέκα" would not be enough for me. Therefore, we shall hasten to other matters.

D I come now to the axioms and maxims of the authors which they left behind concerning the abuse of drugs original: "pharmacorum"; and it is perhaps better to add them here so that greater credit may be given to our words. I do not doubt that just as we have faith in the Sacred Scriptures, and the Pythagoreans in their leader—whose saying was "He himself said it" original: "αὐτὸς ἔφα," referring to the absolute authority of Pythagoras—so physicians will hold the same reverence for their own Pliny, Theophrastus, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, and Galen. If they grant this, all is well.

Therefore, we shall take our starting point from Pliny, Pliny. since he is the father of all antiquity and condensed the grave and skillful sayings of all those before him into a summary original: "ἐπιτομὴν". His words in Book 24, Chapter 1, are these: "Nature was pleased that these alone should be remedies: prepared, commonly easy to find, and without expense, from which we live. Later, the frauds of men and the entrapments of clever minds invented those workshops A critique of 'apothecary shops' in which each person is promised their own life; immediately, inexplicable mixtures and compositions are chanted. Arabia and India are valued in the balance, and for a small sore, medicine is imported from the Red Sea, while the true remedies are what every poor man eats daily. For if a plant were sought from the garden, or a shrub looked for, no art would become more useful. Truly it is so. Furthermore, greatness has destroyed our customs, and by conquering, we have been conquered. We obey foreigners, and this one art rules over the Rulers themselves."

Again, in Book 32, Chapter 11: "And all these things the physicians (if they will forgive me for saying so) are ignorant of. The greater part of them are so far removed from preparing these medicines—which used to be the proper task of medicine—that they only know the names. Now, whenever they fall upon their little books, wishing to compose something from them—that is, to experiment with their commentaries at the expense of the wretched patients—they trust in Seplasia The famous market of druggists and perfumers in ancient Capua, notorious for adulterating goods, which corrupts everything with all kinds of frauds; and they trust in plasters and eye-salves already made long ago..."