ENCOMIUM

CIt is said that the Crotoniates original: Cmãtinos, likely referring to the inhabitants of Croton in Southern Italy, famous in antiquity for their physical health and athletes like Milo. rarely fell ill and lived to be old men. In contrast, we pull in our hands and feet at the very first signs of frost; and the more we use foreign medicines, the more frequently and violently we are beset by diseases. For how many are there among those delicate souls who, at the first sign of a suppressed stomach rumble or a "crepitus," An old medical term for an intestinal sound or passing of gas. immediately gulp down a potion, only to be tortured by pains of the stomach, the liver, gout, dropsy, the "Royal Disease," original: morbo regio, an old name for jaundice. or the "French Disease"? original: morbo gallico, a common Renaissance term for syphilis. Who, I ask, are more tormented by these evils than those who live out of perfume shops original: myropoliis, shops selling scents, ointments, and exotic drugs. and despise all simple food? On the other hand, whom do we see remaining more healthy than those who are content with a simple diet? Far from the workshops of the druggists, they mix their porridge with cheese and egg, just as is said of Cato. It was not our original intention to go quite this far; but since we are discussing these matters with good and fair-minded men, we trust in our liberty. In fact, seeing their fairness toward us, we should lament our own laziness and slipperiness more than condemn anyone’s trade—provided they have not distributed their goods through deceit or excessive usury Lending money or selling goods at unfairly high interest or profit.. Nor do we despise goods from across the sea so much that we do not also hold them in high price, provided they are used at the right time, with discretion, and by those who can afford to buy them.

Furthermore, if through frequent reading and diligent scrutiny, our Doctors would advance the study of our native herbs, they would not hold exotic ones in the highest place—especially since our own local and "household" plants provide so many and such great benefits. Otherwise, if it did not matter greatly, it would have been a waste for Hippocrates and the other ancient physicians who followed him to wander through forests and mountains at such great expense to their wealth and their small bodies, investigating and searching for herbs.

DIt would have been a waste for them to travel through so many wildernesses and foreign nations, doing so on different days and at different seasons of the year—something Dioscorides A Greek physician and botanist (c. 40–90 AD) whose work De Materia Medica was the primary pharmacological text for 1,500 years. testifies that he himself did. They did this because they considered it a plainly divine thing to "philosophize" with herbs. Instead, they could have done as our men do today in the schools: sat down and disputed over matters of no importance to life, governing the fates of men not by their own knowledge, but by relying on others. Yet how much more prudently did the Egyptians act in former times! They took such great care in employing physicians (as Herodotus says) that they appointed individual doctors for individual diseases. Among them, some are eye-doctors, others treat the teeth, and others treat the parts of the belly and the intestines; as a result, everything is full of doctors. They believed it was impossible for one person to have the causes and remedies of all diseases ready at hand.

      As for how such a great neglect of herbs crept in—and subsequently such a thick and lazy ignorance of them—no one has recorded more eloquently than Pliny. These are roughly his words in the Natural History, Book 12, in the preface:

I cannot wonder enough that the memory of certain herbs has perished, and even the knowledge of the names which authors have recorded has been lost. For who would not think that life has been improved by the commerce of things and the fellowship of a festive peace, now that the world has been shared through the majesty of the Roman Empire, and everything that was previously hidden has been put into common use? But by Hercules, people are not found who know much of what was recorded by the ancients: so much more fertile was the care of the men of old, or more successful was their industry. Thousands of years ago, at the very beginnings of literature, Hesiod An early Greek poet (c. 700 BC) who wrote on agriculture in Works and Days. began to reveal instructions for farmers, and not a few followed his care.