s are weak, imperfect, not so well
concocted, of such force, as those in the southern parts, not so fit to be
used in physic, and will therefore fetch their drugs afar off: senna,
cassia out of Egypt, rhubarb from Barbary, aloes from Socotra; turbith,
agaric, mirabolanes, hermodactils, from the East Indies, tobacco from the
west, and some as far as China, hellebore from the Anticyrae, or that of
Austria which bears the purple flower, which Mathiolus so much approves,
and so of the rest. In the kingdom of Valencia, in Spain, [4112]Maginus
commends two mountains, Mariola and Renagolosa, famous for simples; [4113]
Leander Albertus, [4114]Baldus a mountain near the Lake Benacus in the
territory of Verona, to which all the herbalists in the country continually
flock; Ortelius one in Apulia, Munster Mons major in Istria; others
Montpelier in France; Prosper Altinus prefers Egyptian simples, Garcias ab
Horto Indian before the rest, another those of Italy, Crete, &c. Many times
they are over-curious in this kind, whom Fuchsius taxeth, _Instit. l. 1.
sec. 1. cap. 1._ [4115]"that think they do nothing, except they rake all
over India, Arabia, Ethiopia for remedies, and fetch their physic from the
three quarters of the world, and from beyond the Garamantes. Many an old
wife or country woman doth often more good with a few known and common
garden herbs, than our bombast physicians, with all their prodigious,
sumptuous, far-fetched, rare, conjectural medicines:" without all question
if we have not these rare exotic simples, we hold that at home, which is in
virtue equivalent unto them, ours will serve as well as theirs, if they be
taken in proportionable quantity, fitted and qualified aright, if not much
better, and more proper to our constitutions. But so 'tis for the most
part, as Pliny writes to Gallus, [4116]"We are careless of that which is
near us, and follow that which is afar off, to know which we will travel
and sail beyond the seas, wholly neglecting that which is under our eyes."
Opium in Turkey doth scarce offend, with us in a small quantity it
stupefies; cicuta or hemlock is a strong poison in Greece, but with us it
hath no such violent effects: I conclude with I. Voschius, who as he much
inveighs against those exotic medicines, so he promiseth by our European, a
full cure and absolute of all diseases; _a capite ad calcem, nostrae
regionis herbae nostris corporibus magis conducunt_, our own simples agree
best with us. It w