PRÆFATIO.

ten does it supply and perfect the mutilated gifts of the Great Mother? How often does it surpass her? It restores removed limbs, replaces fractured or dislocated joints, and fills and draws together the gaping wounds and fissures. From this comes its antiquity, which is so deep that its origin must be sought from the Divinity and Divine names. For who would have believed that Art was elicited from human ingenuity, all those who took their life and health as accepted from it? For those who think herbal Medicine was invented by Chiron are foolishly inept; or let them teach that the Bear, the Boar, the Weasel, the Tortoise, the Toad, the Hawk, the Crane, the Stork, the Goose, the Duck, the Dove, the Hoopoe, the Magpie, and the Leech were found nowhere in the world before that Centaur. The Bear, hurt by Mandrake, previously healed itself with ants; the Boar with Ivy; the Weasel, about to engage with a Basilisk, sought Rue; the Tortoise, attacked by Serpents, fortified itself with Also with plantain. See our revived Achilles. Origanum; the Toad, wounded by poisonous stings, escaped by using Rue or Sage. The Hawk had used Hawkweed; the Crane, Reed. The Stork, in eating Serpents, had sought salvation in Origanum; the Goose and the Duck and related birds had used Dog's Mercury; the Dove had revealed Vervain; the Hoopoe, injured by eating grapes, [used] Adian-