Placitus
the author of a short Latin work, entitled De Medicina (or Medicamentis) ex Animalibus, consisting of thirty-four chapters, each of which treats of some animal whose body was supposed to possess certain medical properties. As might be expected, it contains numerous absurdities, and is of little or no value or interest. The author has been sometimes confounded with other persons of the name of Sextus (see Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. xii. p. 613, ed. vet.), and is generally distinguished from them by the additional name of Papyriesis or Plapiensis. He appears from various parts of his work (e.g. 100.27) to have been a physician, but nothing else is known of his personal history. His date is uncertain, but he is supposed to have lived in the fourth century after Christ. He is said to have borrowed much from Pliny's Natural History, and to have been copied in turn by Constantinus Africanus. Editions
The work has several times been published, both separately, and in different medical collections. It first appeared in 1538, 4to. Norimberg., ed. Fr. Emericus; and again in the same year, 8vo. Basil. ed. Alb. Torinus. It is inserted (after Oribasius) in the first volume of II. Stephani "Medicae Artis Principes," Paris, fol. 1567; in the thirteenth volume of the old edition of Fabricii Bibl. Graeca ; in Ackermann's Parabilium Medicamentorum Scriptores Antiqui, Norimb. 1788, 8vo.; and elsewhere. Further Information
Choulant's Handb. der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin. [W.A.G]
Sextius. The author of a short Latin treatise, in thirty-four chapters, treating of the medical properties supposed to reside in the bodies of certain animals. Its title is De Medicina (or Medicamentis) ex Animalibus. It is thought to have been written in the fourth century A.D. It is edited by Ackermann (Nürnberg, 1788).