]"That good
Alexander" (saith Guianerus) "puts such confidence in this one medicine,
that he thought all melancholy passions might be cured by it; and I for my
part have oftentimes happily used it, and was never deceived in the
operation of it." The like may be said of lapis lazuli, though it be
somewhat weaker than the other. Garcias ab Horto, _hist. lib. 1. cap. 65._
relates, that the [4216]physicians of the Moors familiarly prescribe it to
all melancholy passions, and Matthiolus _ep. lib. 3._ [4217]brags of that
happy success which he still had in the administration of it. Nicholas
Meripsa puts it amongst the best remedies, _sect. 1. cap. 12._ in
Antidotis; [4218]"and if this will not serve" (saith Rhasis) "then there
remains nothing but lapis armenus and hellebore itself." Valescus and Jason
Pratensis much commend pulvis hali, which is made of it. James Damascen.
_2. cap. 12._ Hercules de Saxonia, &c., speaks well of it. Crato will not
approve this; it and both hellebores, he saith, are no better than poison.
Victor Trincavelius, _lib. 2. cap. 14_, found it in his experience,
[4219]"to be very noisome, to trouble the stomach, and hurt their bodies
that take it overmuch."

Black hellebore, that most renowned plant, and famous purger of melancholy,
which all antiquity so much used and admired, was first found out by
Melanpodius a shepherd, as Pliny records, _lib. 25. cap. 5._ [4220]who,
seeing it to purge his goats when they raved, practised it upon Elige and
Calene, King Praetus' daughters, that ruled in Arcadia, near the fountain
Clitorius, and restored them to their former health. In Hippocrates's time
it was in only request, insomuch that he writ a book of it, a fragment of
which remains yet. Theophrastus, [4221]Galen, Pliny, Caelius Aurelianus, as
ancient as Galen, _lib. 1, cap. 6._ Aretus _lib. 1. cap. 5._ Oribasius
_lib. 7. collect._ a famous Greek, Aetius _ser. 3. cap. 112 & 113 p._
Aegineta, Galen's Ape, _lib. 7. cap. 4._ Actuarius, Trallianus _lib. 5.
cap. 15._ Cornelius Celsus only remaining of the old Latins, _lib. 3. cap.
23_, extol and admire this excellent plant; and it was generally so much
esteemed of the ancients for this disease amongst the rest, that they sent
all such as were crazed, or that doted, to the Anticyrae, or to Phocis in
Achaia, to be purged, where this plant was in abundance to be had. In
Strabo's time it was an ordinary voyage, _Naviget Anticyras_; a common
proverb among the Greeks and