Venice, he produced a printing of his edition at the same place where P. Andrea Mattioli, the principal distributor of Dioscorides in Europe (he had made a translation to Latin and another to Italian in 1544 that was reprinted seventeen times), produced his own edition. Laguna personally verified all the prescriptions of Dioscorides and added his own observations, opinions and experiences as a botanist and pharmacologist who had experimented with herbs gathered in many areas of Europe and the Mediterranean coast. His translation is clear and precise and the commentaries constitute a primary source, not just for botanical medicine of the period, but for other scientific and technical activities. The text was reprinted in Antwerp in 1555 and was reprinted twenty-two times by the end of the eighteenth century; it was much more influential than other editions of Galen or Theophrastus in the European Renaissance, since the prescriptions of Dioscorides had a more practical nature. Laguna still considered the theory of the four humors effective, but he showed scepticism with respect to alchemy, rejecting any affirmation that did not have empirical confirmation. In spite of that, he sometimes included non-firsthand information about products from the Americas, like the antisyphilitic guaiacum, in a very confusing form. When he did not draw from a direct source, he appears to draw from the works of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés. List of works Laguna did many translations and commentaries, like: The Four Most Elegant and Grave Orations of Cicero against Catiline Pedanius Dioscorides of Anazarbus (Amberes, 1555), with commentaries duplicating the length of the original and considering other important sciences the Dialogues of Lucian of Samosata On the Cosmos and On the Virtues of Aristotle the Philosophical History of Galen. His original works include: A Brief Discourse on the Cure of and Preservation from the Plague, where he affirms that "there is no instrument more apt than the doctor to introduce the plague throughout every region" and proposed the formation of a medical body specializing in this disease. Andrés Laguna had treated plague patients in the Duchy of Lorena with an infusion made with white chameleon, although he also recommended black chameleon. He also recommended the application of a saline solution of milk, salt-water and vinegar on an empty stomach and prohibited hot baths; he practiced bloodletting as well as the use of gems and precious stones. the Anatomical Method On the