Not only did the ancients consider the animal creation as constantly under planetary influence, but all vegetable productions and medicinal substances were subject to its laws. The Druids of Gaul and Britain gathered the famed misletoe with a golden knife when the moon was six days old. The vervain, held in such high repute by the Romans, was gathered, after libations of honey and wine, at the rising of the dog-star, and with the left hand, and thus collected served, for various sacerdotal and medical purposes: its branches were employed to sweep the temples of Jupiter; it was used in exorcisms for sprinkling lustral water; and moreover it cured fevers, the bite of venomous reptiles, and appeased discord; hence it was borne by those heralds who were sent to sue for peace, and called _verbenarii_; and when its benign powers were shed over the festive board, mirth and good temper were sure to prevail. So generally and so highly appreciated was this all-powerful plant, that Pliny tells us, Nulla herba Romanae nobilitatis plus habet quam hierabotane. However, it is somewhat doubtful whether the vervain of the ancients was similar to the plant which now bears that name. It would appear that formerly the appellation of _verbenae_ or _sagmina_ was given to various plants employed in religious ceremonies: and branches of pine-tree, of laurel, and of myrtle were sometimes thus denominated. Virgil says in his Eclogues, Verbenasque adole pingues, et mascula thura. Now the epithets of _pingues_ and _thura_ cannot apply to our vervain, but to some resinous production. Medicine at that period might have been called an astronomic science; every medicinal substance was under a specific influence, and to this day the R which precedes prescriptions, and is admitted to represent the first letter of _recipe_, was in fact the symbol of Jupiter, under whose special protection medicines were exhibited. Every part of the body was then considered under the influence of the zodiacal constellations, and Manilius gives us the following description of their powers: Namque Aries capiti, Taurus cervicibus haeret; Brachia sub Geminis censentur, pectora Cancro; Te, scapulae, Nemaee, vocant, teque ilia, Virgo; Libra colit clunes, et Scorpius inguine regnat; Et femur Arcitenens, genua et Capricornus amavit; Cruraque defendit Juvenis, vestigia, Pisces. _Astronomicon_, lib. 1. SPECTACLES.