508 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



was good for ulcers * and wounds, f According to Pliny, leaves of man- 

 dragora with barley meal would remove foreign substances adhering to 

 the surface of the body, t It was used to remove marks from the face 

 or body. § A poultice of the scraped root mixed with vinegar is recom- 

 mended for gout by Theophrastiis, || while Pliny cites as a remedy for 

 this disease a poultice made of the leaves and barley meal, or of the 

 root and wild cucumber, or the root alone steeped in water. % It was 

 applied to snake-bites.*^ It was used in preparing pessaries t^ and sup- 

 positories, t^ Taken internally it was employed in various ailments. 

 Thus it is mentioned as a remedy for different female troubles. P Hippo- 

 crates recommends it for quartan fever. §^ It was efficacious in curing 

 defluxions of humors. ||^ The juice mixed with some liquid, like honey 

 and water, was thought to draw phlegm, or black bile, H^ the presence of 

 which in the body the ancients regarded as the cause of many diseases.*^ 

 Not only was it thought to be efficacious in the treatment of the body, 

 but it was also employed in mental disorders. Consequently it was 

 recommended for those suffering from convulsions,!^ or those op[)ressed 

 with melancholia with suicidal tendency, f^ and for the treatment of the 

 insane, the idea here being generally to produce sleep, as appears from 

 a passage in Celsus. t^ 



* (Theophr., 9. 9. 1) ; Tlin., 26. 145. t Plin., 26. 145. 



t Plin., 26. 149. § Diosc, 1.572, 2. 151 ; Plin., 25. 175. 



II (Theophr., 9. 9. 1). Although the plant known to Theophrastus by the name 

 of mandragora was surely not the same as the mandragora of Dioscorides and 

 Pliny, it does not seem out of place to cite the uses which lie mentions, inasmucii 

 as it is by no means certain that he took the description of the plant and liis ac- 

 count of its uses from the same source ; it .night easily be the case that the former 

 is wrong and the latter correct. Moreover his account of its uses agrees very well 

 with those of other writers. 



IF Plin., 26. 104-105. « Diosc, 1. 572; Plin., 25. 150. 



fi Hipp., 2. 711; Diosc, 1.572. 



Ji Different uses are mentioned in Plin., 26. 156, Diosc, 1. 572, 57o, Hipp., 2. 862. 



§1 Hipp., 2. 251. ||i Diosc, 1. 736; Plin., 25. 147. 



V Hipp., 2. 739 ; Diosc, 1. 571 ; Plin., 25. 150. 



*2 In the so-called Dynamidia (Ang. Mai's CI. Auct., vol. 7, p. 457) mandragora 

 is said to relieve persons suffering from nausea. Tiiis fact is recorded nowhere 

 else, and Pliny (25. 150) states that it )>rotliices vomiting. 



Dioscorides (1. 574) notes that the root of the "third species " is said to be 

 efficacious as an antidote (see Galen, 14. 1 ff.) when taken with the so-called 

 nuiddening nightshade. 



f- Hipp., 2. 139. 



t2 Cels., 3. 18 (cd. Darcmberg, p. 100). 



