MEDICAL AUTHORS QUOTED.—Mnesitheus,[470] Callimachus,[471] Phanias[472] the physician, Timaristus,[473] Simus,[474] Hippocrates,[475] Chrysippus,[476] Diocles,[477] Ophelion,[478] Heraclides,[479] Hicesius,[480] Dionysius,[481] Apollodorus[482] of Citium, Apollodorus[483] of Tarentum, Praxagoras,[484] Plistonicus,[485] Medius,[486] Dieuches,[487] Cleophantus,[488] Philistion,[489] Asclepiades,[490] Crateuas,[491] Petronius Diodotus,[492] Iollas,[493] Erasistratus,[494] Diagoras,[495] Andreas, Mnesides,[496] Epicharmus,[497] Damion,[498] Sosimenes,[499] Tlepolemus,[500] Metrodorus,[501] Solon,[502] Lycus,[503] Olympias[504] of Thebes, Philinus,[505] Petrichus,[506] Micton,[507] Glaucias,[508] Xenocrates.[509] BOOK XXV. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE WILD PLANTS. CHAP. 1. (1.)—WHEN THE WILD PLANTS WERE FIRST BROUGHT INTO USE. The more highly esteemed plants of which I am now about to speak, and which are produced by the earth for medicinal purposes solely, inspire me with admiration of the industry and laborious research displayed by the ancients. Indeed there is nothing that they have not tested by experiment or left untried; no discovery of theirs which they have not disclosed, or which they have not been desirous to leave for the benefit of posterity. We, on the contrary, at the present day, make it our object to conceal and suppress the results of our labours, and to defraud our fellow-men of blessings even which have been purchased by others. For true it is, beyond all doubt, that those who have gained any trifling accession of knowledge, keep it to themselves, and envy the enjoyment of it by others; to leave mankind uninstructed being looked upon as the high prerogative of learning. So far is it from being the habit with them to enter upon new fields of discovery, with the view of benefitting mankind at large, that for this long time past it has been the greatest effort of the ingenuity of each, to keep to himself the successful results of the experience of former ages, and so bury them for ever!