334 NOTES

with Galum aparine, 'bedstraw' (galvum because it curdles mllk),
a Rubiacea, solvent and diuretic.

ï:29 Perhaps the Asperwla odorata of modern botany, used by
herbalists for melancholia and as a sudorific.

130 Perhaps Salvwia Horminum, Labiata, violet flowers, a kind of
sage; Dioscurides III. 129; Theophrastus VIII. 1. 4, followed by
Pliny XVIII, 96, classes as a leguminous plant, with millet. Ruellius,
often consulted by Fracastorius, is Jean Ruel (1474—1537), the
French botanist, physician to Francis I; his De naftwra sfirpvum
Paris, 1536, is one of the most important botanical works of that
century.

: His commentaries on herbs have never been published, and
are perhaps not extant.

13 2 The herb now called sideritis is Salvia sclarea, 'meadow clary'.

: For the Lapatha see p.203, note 37. Perhaps he means the
dock with sharp pointed leaves, or sheep—sorrel?

34 For viper wine see p. 203, note 46.
555 For his poem Syphilis see p. 143 and Introduection, p. xxi.

16 Meunier here mistranslates "^"mais choisissez plutöt !air du
Nord'", and is echoed by Fossel.

137 All the early syphiliographers give minute instructions as to
diet. In fact every malady in the time of Fracastorius had its
special dietary, the ingredients being carefully chosen with a view
to their action on the humors affected. The directions for French
Sickness were peculiarly minute and complex. 'The dietary given
by Vigo (1514) is very like that of Fracastorius. He says that it
is essential, in the early stage of the malady, to give only foods that
will *regenerate and purify the blood', allows, with caution, certain
fruits and vegetables, calls milk and cheese **detestable and perni—
cious foods", and warns against all kinds of fish, except **small red
fish, broiled?''.

138 The maena, or mena, was & small sea—fish eaten salted by the
poor in the time of Pliny; passer is said to be turbot (or flounders);
the scarus is by some identified with the parrot—fish; Pliny's merwla
is said to be sea—carp; furdus is said to be sea—carp or rock—fish; the
asellus of Pliny is perhaps haddock or cod; his qwrata is perhaps
the gilt—bream; his phycis (Greek 20cos, seaweed) lives in seaweed
and changes color at different seasons; the (emalus or (imalus (said
to be so named because it smells like thyme) is mentioned by Aelian,
and is perhaps the temolo still encountered at Verona, a river—trout;
the /ucius is perhaps the pike; cavacini may perhaps be identified
with the cavazzino still eaten at Verona and throughout Italy,
an insipid fresh—water fish; perhaps — cavedine, a kind of carp.

139 Properly spelt cofurnices, quails.

140 Next to the shooting of live pigeons in their famous Roman
arena, on holidays, the saddest sight in Verona today is the trays
of small dead birds always for sale in the market place.