MEDICAL AUTHORS QUOTED.—Mnesitheus,[2047] Timaristus,[2048] Simus,[2049] Hippocrates,[2050] Chrysippus,[2051] Diocles,[2052] Ophelion,[2053] Heraclides,[2054] Hicesius,[2055] Dionysius,[2056] Apollodorus[2057] of Citium, Apollodorus[2058] of Tarentum, Praxagoras,[2059] Plistonicus,[2060] Medius,[2061] Dieuches,[2062] Cleophantus,[2063] Philistion,[2064] Asclepiades,[2065] Crateuas,[2066] Petronius Diodotus,[2067] Iollas,[2068] Erasistratus,[2069] Diagoras,[2070] Andreas,[2071] Mnesides,[2072] Epicharmus,[2073] Damion,[2074] Tlepolemus,[2075] Metrodorus,[2076] Solo,[2077] Lycus,[2078] Olympias[2079] of Thebes, Philinus,[2080] Petrichus,[2081] Micton,[2082] Glaucias,[2083] Xenocrates.[2084] ⁂ Before quitting the Botanical Books of Pliny, it is a duty both to our author and to the reader, to call attention to the illustrations of a few passages in this work, which will be found in the _Textrinum Antiquorum_, by Dr. James Yates, F.R.S., a book characterized by learning, equally profound and extensive, and the most indefatigable research: it being but recently, we are sorry to say, that we have been made acquainted with its valuable contents. The following are selected as among the most useful and interesting results of his enquiries. B. vi. c. 20 [V. ii. p. 36]. Dr. Yates is of opinion that Pliny has here mistranslated a passage of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. v. 19 and that he has mistaken the word βομβύκια, “cocoons,” for webs, similar to those of the spider, attached to the leaves of trees. Not understanding the original, he would seem to have given a distorted account of the simple operation of winding the threads from off the cocoons of the silkworm upon bobbins, by the hands of females; the threads upon which bobbins would be afterwards unwound for the manufacture of silken fabrics. See Notes 303 and 304 on the passage in question; also B. xi. c. 26. B. viii. c. 74 [V. ii. p. 336]. For the word “Sororiculata,” Dr. Yates proposes to read “Soriculata,” and he suggests that the cloth thus called may have been a velvet or plush, which received its name from its resemblance to the coat of the field-mouse, “sorex,” the diminutive of which would be “soricula.” B. xix. c. 2 [V. iv. p. 133] and c. 6 [p. 138], Dr. Yates expresses it as his opinion that the words “Carbasus” and “Carbasa” are derived from the oriental word _Carpos_, signifying “cotton,” and thinks that Pliny, in B. xix. c. 2, may have used the word by Catachresis, as meaning linen, in the same manner as the Latin poets repeatedly use the word “carbasa,” as signifying various kinds of woven textures. If this view be correct, the word “Carbasina” in B. xix. c. 6, will probably mean “awnings of woven material” generally, and not of fine linen, or cambric, as suggested in Note 856.