De metallorum ortu & causis

obtained. Indeed, Dioscorides A Greek physician and botanist of the first century AD whose work was the primary authority on herbs for centuries. mentions this in the first book of On Medical Matters. He says that goats and bucks feed on the leaves of the cisti rockrose, and they visibly pluck the fatness with their beards, and carry it back adhering to their hairy legs by its stickiness. The inhabitants, combing it off and straining it, compress it into lumps and store it. If anyone asks about its powers, let him consult Dioscorides himself in that place, where they are explained more than enough. But as for the latter preparation, which belongs to the Paracelsians, I do not clearly understand what it is. Nevertheless, from its effects I conjecture it to be either opium or some other medicine pharmacũ of this kind. For in a small dose it wonderfully numbs the limbs, induces sleep, soothes pains, and finally performs other things, and the same things as opium or any other narcotic. But in my judgment, it is more truly worthy to be called by our Frenchmen Las-d'aller Tired-of-going than Ladanum, because by numbing the spirits and extinguishing the natural heat, it deprives the muscular and nervous parts of