363 
The fuperftitious and abfurd ftories, formerly told of the Mandrake, 
would not now for a moment impofe upon the moft credulous and 
. ignorant: the great refemblance of fome of the roots to the human 
form, the danger of taking them out of the ground, and their fur- 
prifing effects, were all the invention of charlatanical knavery and 
impotture.” Bo i 3 | 
The roots of Mandrake vary both in form and colour, being either 
divided or entire, and externally brown or black; hence they have 
been diftinguifhed into male and female: the internal fubftance is 
white, and to the tafte fomewhat vifcid, bitter, and naufeous. 
All the ancient writers on Mandrake reprefent this root to be an 
anodyne and foporific, but in large dofes it is faid to excite maniacal 
fury.“ They employed it principally in continued watchings, and in 
thofe more painful and obftinate affeCtions which were found to 
~ -refift lefs powerful medicines.“ se oe : 
It was alfo ufed in melancholia, convulfions, rheumatic pains, 
{crophulous tumours, &c. and to anfwer thefe purpofes, either the 
exprefled juice of the cortical part of the root, infpiffated, or a 
vinous decoction, or infufion of the root, was directed. 
The leaves of Mandrake, boiled in milk, and ufed as a cataplafm, 
are, according to Boerhaave, likewife to be confidered as an ufeful 
application to indurated tumours." es = 
The root alfo, employed externally, from the later and lefs equi- 
vocal experience of Hoffberg,’ was found extremely efficacious in 
difcufling various glandular tumefaétions. And in fome cafes of gout 
_ this author tried its effects internally ; from which we find that in a 
» Ferunt has praftantiffimas radices ex urina fufpenfi hominis fub.patibulo morientis 
irrigatas tales efformari, & ideo adeo raras effe, eafdem non fine vite periculo manu — 
effodi, quapropter eas primum circumfodiendas effe, ita ut minimum ex radice terra fit 
conditum, deinde ab ea religandum canem, a quo poftea fugiente radix extrahitur & 
fequitur, fed non adeo Jonge, quandoquidem ftatim atque effofla eft, canis moritur > 
nujlum poftea accipientibus amplius metum efle, imo fumme proficuas efle, maleficia & ~ 
infortunia quacunque avertendo, &-felicitates quafcunque defiderabiles afferendo.. Geoff: 
le a alfo Matthiol. and others. e ee Ft i 
© Hippocr. de locis in hom, Ed. Foes. p.240.  Areteus. Acut. curat. L.i. cap. 6. Cel. 
Aurel. si 1. +4. © Diofeord. M. tt ; pase 76. © Diof. 1. c. _ | 
a eee gt ierh! Lege: Dae. we 2. CMR 
t Vet. Acad. Handl. 1763. vol. 24.p..229. - Pallas alfo mentions it as of frequent ufe 
for chronic difeafes in fome parts of Rufia. See Reifed, Ruff. 1. Th. p. 49. 
dofe 
