Sextius Niger

[2] Dioscorides calls him a disciple of Asclepiades of Bithynia and speaks slightingly of him and others of the same school for a lack of care in investigating the remedies they recommend.

[4] Unlike Dioscorides, Pliny writes of Niger with great respect as "diligentissimus medicinae" ("a very diligent medical writer"); and Galen also regarded him highly.

[5] The work discussed medical effects of both plants and animals; its relation to folk beliefs can be seen in his comments on the salamander:[6] Sextius venerem accendi cibo earum, si detractis interaneis et pedibus et capite in melle serventur, tradit negatque restingui ignem ab iis.

Sextius says that sexual desire is increased by eating them, if they are preserved in honey with the guts and head and feet removed, but denies that fire can be put out by them.

From an examination of the parallel passages in Dioscorides and Pliny, Wellmann believes that his sources will have included the botanist Theophrastus and the writer on snakes Apollodorus.