Scribonius, Largus

, a Roman physician, lived in the reign of Claudius, and is said to have accompanied this emperor in his campaign in Britain. He wrote a treatise “De Compositione Medicamentorum,” which is very often quoted by Galen, but was pillaged by Marcellus the empiric, according to Dr. Freind. At a time when it was the practice of many physicians to keep their compositions secret, Scribonius published his, and expressed great confidence in their efficacy; but many of them are trifling, and founded in superstition, and his language is so inferior to that of his age, that some have supposed he wrote his | work in Greek, and that it was translated into Latin by some later hand: but Freind and others seem of a different opinion. The treatise of Scribonius has been several times reprinted, and stands among the “Medicse Artis Principes” of Henry Stephens, 1567. ¹