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MEMOIRS

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LITERATURE.

ARTICLE I.

BOTANOLOGIA. THE ENGLISH HERBAL: Or, Hiftory of Plants. Containing, I. Their Names, Greek, Latin, and English. II. Their Species, or various Kinds. III. Their Defcriptions. IV. Their Places of Growth. V. Their Times of Flowering and Seeding. VI. Their Qualities or Properties. VII. Their Specifications. VIII. Their Preparations, Galenick and Chymick. IX. Their Virtues and Vfes. X. A complete Florilegium, of all the Choice ·Flowers cultivated by our Florists, interspersed through the whole Work, in their proper Places; where you have their Culture, Choice, Increase, and way of Management, as well for Vol. IV.

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Profit as Delectation. Adorned with Exquifite Icons or Figures, of the most confiderable Species, reprefenting to the Life the true Forms of thofe feveral Plants. The whole in an Alphabetical Order. By WILLIAM SALMON, M. D. London: Printed by J. Dawks, for H. Rhodes, at the Star, the Corner of Bride-Lane in Fleetfteet; and J. Taylor, at the Ship in Pater-nofterRow. M DCC XI. Two Volumes in Folio. · Pagg. 1296.

R. SALMON never defigned to publish an univerfal Hiftory of Plants, but to confine himself to thofe, that are moft known and experimented, and moft Ufeful in Phyfick. This Work, on which he has bestowed fo many Years, to render it as perfect as he could, will be of great Ufe to Phyficians, Chirurgions, and Apothecaries, for whom, and the Publick Good, it was principally intended.

The Authors that have been moft confulted by Dr. Salmon in composing this Herbal, are Bauhinus, Brunfelfius, Cafalpinus, Camerarius, Clufius, Diofcorides, Dodoneus, Durantes, Fuchfius, Gerard, Johnson, Lobel and Pena, Leonicerus, Lugdunenfis, Matthiolus, Parkinson, Ruellius, Schroder, Tabernamontanus, Theophraftus, and Tragus. Befides thofe Authors, many others have been made ufe of upon feveral Occafions, without the Help of which this Noble Work would not have been fo compleat as it is.

As for what concerns the Hiftorical Part, Dr.,Salmon follows the moft Celebrated Writers of Botanicks, in the Names of Plants, their Kinds, Defcriptions, Places of Growth, and Times of Flowring and Seeding. He has all along inferted the moft ufual Names, elpecially those by which Plants have been most known in

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all Ages, whether Arabick, Greek, Latin, or English; and it will appear that he has rectified the Latin Nomenclature, which, even in all our Dictionaries, has hitherto been very Faulty and Imperfect.

As for the Kinds of every Plant, our Author owns he has not given all that may be found in Parkinson,. and many other Writers, having omitted thofe, which an English Reader can hardly know or fee, because they grow in foreign and far diftant Countries. Befides, thofe Plants having no Virtues or Ufes affigned to them, it would have been needless to infert their Names and Defcriptions, confidering that this Work was chiefly defigned for the Ufe and Benefit of the Practical Phyfician.

The Defcriptions of Dr. Salmon are much the fame with those of the beft Authors; but he has almost every where reversed their Method of describing Plants. They frequently begin with the Top or upper Parts of a Plant, and fo go downwards to the Root. The Author, on the contrary, generally begins with the Root; and fo afcends upwards to the Stalks, Leaves, Branches, Flowers, Seeds or Fruit; which is certainly the most natural Method.

The Places of the Growth of Plants (fays Dr. Salmon) are very uncertain, because fome are not to be found now, where they grew very plentifully in former Times. He obferves that in fome Places, where he faw feveral Plants growing, when he was a Youth, there are no Remainders of them to be found at this prefent Time. The Egyptian Arum, or Pfeudocolecafia, now call'd the Carolina Eddo, did formerly grow in Egypt, and was very Plentiful; but our late Travelers fay, it has not for fome Ages been known to grow there at all. Our Author is of Opinion, that if it were carefully fought after, fome Remains of it might be found ftill.

The Readers will find every where the various Qualities of each Plant carefully mentioned; whereby one may judge of their Virtues, and to what Difeafes they may be properly applied: Which must needs be of great Ufe to practical Physicians,

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Dr. Salmon does not affirm, That every Herb is a Specifick for the Cure of all Diseases. He explains himself in the following Words: "He that reads me, Says he, ought to read me with a medical Mind, or "Soul, and with a good Understanding. I will exemplify the Matter. Suppose it to be Rosemary. As to its firft Qualities, it is hot and dry in the Third Degree; and it is Cephalick, Neurotick, Stomachick, "Alexipharmick. From thefe Qualities we conclude, "that it must be helpful against all cold and moift "Difeafes of the Head, Brain, Nerves, Stomach, and "Poifon: Then, when we confider what Diseases are apt to afflict thofe Parts, from a hot and dry Caufe, we fix the Virtues to be fuch as may refift those Dif "eafes, not to be an abfolute and fpecifick Cure for "the fame, but to be very helpful in those Cases, "and fo may be drawn into Compofitions, with other "Ingredients for the fame Purposes. And thus I de"fire every genuine Son of Art to understand me. "What I have faid in this Paragraph, may be of "admirable Ufe, if it be rightly understood and applied.

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The Author gives in every Chapter the various Preparations of each Plant, both Galenick and Chymick; which was never performed by any other Author before. Thus he gives the whole Refult of the Plant, and teaches in a few Words how it is to be used and applied, in all the Cafes, and to all the Diftempers, to which it may be appropriated. That the Readers may the better understand this Part of his Work, he exemplifies the whole in his Introduction, by giving feveral Forms, both Galenick and Chymick, adapted to the Capacity of fuch as are ignorant of the Medical Arr.

Dr. Salmon, not contented to explain the Virtues of a Plant in general, fhews in a particular manner, how all the feveral Preparations, mentioned by him, are to be used and applied in every Disease; which (fays he) was never done before by any other Author; and is of univerfal Ufe in the Art and Practice of Phyfick. It is performed (continues be) so as to answer every

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particular and fingular Preparation, and in a Style "To full and plain, that the meaneft Understanding cannot eafily mistake me; by which Means it is accommodated to the Ufe of the Vulgar, though they "understand little or nothing of the Art of Phy"fick.

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The Florifts will find in this Work a compleat Ac count of the choice Flowers, cultivated in England, They are not placed by themselves, but interiperfed throughout the whole Book in an Alphabetical Order. The Author treats of their Culture, and fhews how many Ways they may be managed and increased: A noble Subject, fays he, but never brought into any Herbal before this.

A confiderable Part of Dr. Salmon's Introduction runs upon the Qualities of Medicines. He does very much enlarge upon that Subject, and upon Galenick Internal, Topical or External, and Chymical Preparations. In the next Place, he treats of the Virtues of Medicines, and of Dofes, Ufes and Applications. He appears a great Admirer of Paracelfus, and calls him a wonderful Spirit, and a great Man, "who not only "shewed the Weakness of Empiricifm, of Galenick Me"dicines, and Medicafters, but unvailed and brought "the Arts of Medicine out of their Rubbish, and fer "them in a true Light, for the general Good of "Mankind.

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Here follows another Paffage, whereby the Readers may see what Dr. Salmon thinks of the Ancient Phy ficians. "The Medical Art, (ays he) and all its "Rules, even the Fabrick of the whole Art, was

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reared and built out of Empiricism, or Quackery; " and its Original or Foundation was laid by Empiσε ricks or Quacks, (as the Learned are pleased to phrate it,) and the firft Phyficians were no other than Empiricks, Quacks, or Tryers of Skill; out of whose Trals, Obfervations and Practices, fome Wife Men "collected a Set of Precepts and Rules, which being reduced into Method, we now call the Art of Phyfick. But the Misfortune of the Art is, that it

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