RANDOLPH. — MANDIUGOIIA IN FOLK-LORE AND MEDICINE. 507 



leaves mixed with barley meal were applied as a poultice;* they were 

 sometimes preserved in brine for future use.f The fruit had various 

 uses, as did the juice extracted from it, and the seeds. Dioscorides dis- 

 tinguishes between the simple juice (otto?) obtained by scratching or 

 pounding the bark and that obtained by boiling [^vXia-fxa, x^^'A-o's) ; Pliny 

 does not make this distinction, so that we do not always know which 

 kind his sums refers to. Juice was obtained both from the root and 

 from the fruit, % that from the root being more powerful. § The root 

 was pounded and mixed with oil of roses and wine for external appli- 

 cation. II The bark was pounded from the fresh root, put in a press, H 

 and the juice thus obtained allowed to thicken in the sun, after which 

 it was stored in earthen vessels.*^ The bark was sometimes stripped 

 from the root and hung away on strings, to be used later in making 

 mandragora wine, f^ We have two receipts for the manufacture of this : 

 (1) It was prepared by boiling down the roots to a third in wine and 

 allowing the liquor obtained to thicken ; J^ (2) The bark was stripped 

 off and hung on strings and let down into a vessel containing sweet 

 wine, which was allowed to stand thus for three months. §^ An account 

 of a recent attempt to reproduce the mandragora wine of the ancients 

 is given on page 509 below. 



The uses of mandragora in medicine were very many. Its external 

 application, in various forms of plasters and poultices, seems to have had 

 a soothing and cooling effect on the parts to which it was applied. Thus 

 it was a remedy for erysipelas |p (which the Latin writers frequently call 

 ignis sacer), and for many other diseases accompanied by inflammation ; 

 it was therefore much used in the treatment of eye troubles. 1[^ Hippo- 

 crates mentions its use for inflammation of the anus. *^ It was applied to 

 abscesses,!" indurations, |"^ and tumors. §- We are further told that it 



* Diosc, 1. 572. 



t Ibid. ; Plin., 25. 149. t Diosc, 1. 571 ; Plin., 25. 148. 



§ Diosc, 1. 571. II Plin., 25. 147. 



H This press is mentioned in the pseudo-Galenian treatise De Simpl. Med. ad 

 Patern. (Junta, Venet., 1609, Sp 91G) : succus organo exprimitur, quod Graece 

 inandragorochyion appellanius. 



*i Diosc, 1. 571. fi Ibid. 



|i Ibid. §1 Id., 1. 736. 



yi (Theophr., 9. 9. 1) ; Diosc, 1. 572 ; Plin., 26. 121 ; Theoplr. Non., Epit., cap. 246. 



^> Phn., 25. 147 ; Diosc, 1. 572. *2 Hipp., 3. 338. 



|2 Diosc, 1. 572; Phn., 26. 145. |2 Diosc, 1. 572. 



§3 Plin., 26. 93 ipanus) ; Diosc, 1. 572, Plin., 26. 24 (struma) ; Diosc, 1. 572 

 {tuberculum). 



