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Show B._O_O_K_ _V..I.I, . sf c ,., ux. Knowledge ef nature and' 11fe of mcdiciDal fimplea. H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C o. filver which was fent from New to Old Spain ; '1 fmall prcfage of the immenfc treafures it was to fenu in flrture . Amongfi: other arts exercifed by the Mexic<ms, tbt of medicine has been entirely overlooked by the Spanin1 hiflorians, although it is certainly not the lea(\: efi~ntial part of their hiflory. They have contented themfclvcs witl,1 faying, that the Mexican phyficians had a great knowl~dge of herbs, and that by means of theft th .... y performed mird .. culous cures; but do not mark the prog1·efs which they made in un ai·t fo beueficial to the human race. It is not to be Joubted, thJt the 1ame neceffities wl)ich fiimllla~ed the Greeks to make a collection of experiments and obfcrvations on the nature of difeafes, and the virtue ~:>f fimples, would alfo have in time led the Mexicans to the know. ledge of thofe two moil: important parts of medicine. We do not know whether they intended by their paintings, lik~ the Greeks by their writings, to communicate their lights to pofi:erity. Thofe who followed the profeffion of medicine infi:rutted their fans in the nature and differences of the difeafes to which the human frame is. fubjeCl, and of the herbs which Providence has created for their remedy, the virtues of which had been experienced by their ancdl:ors. Th¢y taught them the art of di_fcerning the fym ptoms and progrefs of difterent diftempers, and to prepare medicines and apply them.. We· have ample proofs of this in the natural hifl:ory of Mexico, written by Dr. Hernandez (c).. This learned and laborious writer had always the Mexican phyficians for his. guides in the fi:udy of natural hiftory, which (t·) Hernandez who was phrfician to Philip II. king of Spain, and much renowned for the works he publi!hed concerning the Natural Hillary of Pliny, was fent by that monarch to •Mexico, to frudy the natural hiil:ory of that kingdom. He employed himfelf there with other able learned natllrali!ls for fcvcral years, arTi Cled by the Mexican pl1yficians. His work, wor\ hy of the cxpe11cc which it colt of lixty thoufand ducats, confified of twenty-four books Qf hillory, and ele ven volumes of cxc~llcnt figures of plants and animals ; but the king thinking it too voluminous, gave orders to his phylician Nardo Anttlnio R icc hi, aN eapolitau, to abridge it, This ~~obridgeme11t was publi!l1cd in Spanilh by Francifco Ximenes, a Dominican, in t615,. und afterwards in Latin, nt Rome, in 165 ', by the Lincean academicians, with notes and learned differtations, thD.llgh rather lo11g and unintcrcOing. The manuCcripts of Hernandez. were pn:fervcd in the library of the Efcurial, from which. Nu,-emberg extra::led,- according to his own confeffion, a !;reat part of wh~t he has written· in his Natural Hifiory. 'F. Claude Clement, a French Jefuit, difcourfing of the manufcl'ipt of Hernandez, fays thus : " ~i "Qmncs libri,. & commcntarii, fi prout affcc.li funt, ita forent perfe,'ti, & abfoluti, Philippu& " II. & Franc1fcus Hernandius haud qunquam Alexandra, & Ari!lottli hac i'n parte c.oncc• "de rent.'" • · s he H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. I he profccuted ·in that empire. They communicated to him the knowleJge of twelve hundred plants, with their proper Mexica11 names; more than t~o hundred f?ecies of birds; and a large number of quadrupeds, rept1les, fi!hes, mfeCl:s, and minerals. From this moft valll·~ ble, though imp~rfeCl hiftory, a fyfi:em of praCtical medicine may he ~or~ed for that ktngdom i as has in p:trt been done by Dr. Farfan, J~ h1s Book o_f Cures, by ~regorio Lopez, and other eminent phy.ficm_ ns. And 1f fince that tune the fiudy of natural hifi:ory had ROt be~n negl.eCled, nor fuch a prepoifeffion prevailed in favour of every tlung wh1ch came from beyond the feas, the inhabitants of New S!'ain would h~ve faved a great part of tl1e expences they have been at in purchafii~ g the drugs of Europe and of Aiia, and reaped greater advantages from the productions of their own country. Europe has been obliged to _the. phyficians of Mexico for tobac.co·, America£l balfam, gllm eo~al, l~qutd amber, farfaparilla, tecamaca, jalap, barley., and the purgattve pme-feeds, and other fimples, which have been much ufed in medicine: but the number of thofe of which the has been deprived the benefit by the ignoranc~ and negligence of the Spaniards, is infinite. Among the purgatives en:'ployed by the phyficans of Mexico, be ... iides jalap, · pine-feed, and the fmall be:tn~ the Mechoacan, fo well known in Europe (d), was extremely common, alfo the lzticpatli, much celebrated by Hernandez, and the Amamaxt!a: vulgarly called the Rhubarb of the Brothers. . Amongil: other emetics the Mexicans macle u.fe of the Mexochitl, and the Neixcotlapatli; and among diuret.ics the Axixpatli, and the Axi;<ftlacot!, which is fo highly prai!ed by Hernandez. Amongll: their antidotes the £1.mous Contrahier-ba was defervedly valued, calle~ by them oa account of its figure, Coanenepilli, To.ngue of Serpmt, and on account of its cfft:Cl:s Coapat lt", or remedy againfl.ferpents. Aniongfi their en·hines was the ZozojaJic, a plant fo efficacious, that it was {d) The .celebrated .root of Mechoac:an i1 cnllcd taL"ttachr by the Tarafcas, :md Tlalantlacuitl~ pilli by the Mexicans, _'~he kn?wlcdg~ of it wa5 oommunica1cd by a phyfican of the king Q~ M1.:hullc:m to the tirlt rchgwus mtllionancs who went there to prc:1ch the gofpel; he cured them with it of certain fevers of a plltrid muure, By them it was made known to the Spaniards, and fTom the Spaniards to all EurBpe. I i i 2 fuffi- |