c. 3. said, henbane and hellebore were poison; and Alexander Aphrodiseus, in the preface of his problems, gave out, that (speaking of hellebore) [4226]"Quails fed on that which was poison to men.”  Galen. l. 6.  Epid. com. 5.  Text. 35. confirms as much:  [4227]Constantine the emperor in his Geoponicks, attributes no other virtue to it, than to kill mice and rats, flies and mouldwarps, and so Mizaldus, Nicander of old, Gervinus, Sckenkius, and some other Neoterics that have written of poisons, speak of hellebore in a chief place. [4228]Nicholas Leonicus hath a story of Solon, that besieging, I know not what city, steeped hellebore in a spring of water, which by pipes was conveyed into the middle of the town, and so either poisoned, or else made them so feeble and weak by purging, that they were not able to bear arms.  Notwithstanding all these cavils and objections, most of our late writers do much approve of it. [4229] Gariopontus lib. 1. cap. 13. Codronchus com. de helleb. Fallopius lib. de med. purg. simpl. cap. 69. et consil. 15. Trincavelii, Montanus 239.  Frisemelica consil. 14. Hercules de Saxonia, so that it be opportunely given.  Jacobus de Dondis, Agg.  Amatus, Lucet. cent. 66. Godef.  Stegius cap. 13. Hollerius, and all our herbalists subscribe.  Fernelius meth. med. lib. 5. cap. 16. “confesseth it to be a [4230] terrible purge and hard to take, yet well given to strong men, and such as have able bodies.”  P. Forestus and Capivaccius forbid it to be taken in substance, but allow it in decoction or infusion, both which ways P. Monavius approves above all others, Epist. 231.  Scoltzii, Jacchinus in 9.  Rhasis, commends a receipt of his own preparing; Penottus another of his chemically prepared, Evonimus another.  Hildesheim spicel. 2. de mel. hath many examples how it should be used, with diversity of receipts.  Heurnius lib. 7. prax. med. cap. 14. “calls it an [4231]innocent medicine howsoever, if it be well prepared.”  The root of it is only in use, which may be kept many years, and by some given in substance, as by Fallopius and Brassivola amongst the rest, who [4232]brags that he was the first that restored it again to its use, and tells a story how he cured one Melatasta, a madman, that was thought to be possessed, in the Duke of Ferrara’s court, with one purge of black hellebore in substance:  the receipt is there to be seen; his excrements were like ink, [4233]he perfectly healed at once; Vidus Vidius, a Dutch physician, will not admit of it in substance, to whom most subscribe, but as before, in the decoction, infusion, or which is all in all, in the extract, which he prefers before the rest, and calls suave medicamentum, a sweet medicine, an easy, that may be securely given to women, children, and weaklings.  Baracellus, horto geniali, terms it maximae praestantia medicamentum, a medicine of great worth and note.  Quercetan