514 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



second hand, and presenting it without due regard to the credibility of 

 the sources. There is surely room for a fuller treatment of the subject 

 than it has yet received. 



The statement that physicians used mandragora before surgical opera- 

 tions to prevent sensation, while repeatedly mentioned by writers of 

 later times, does not occur in any work which has come down to us of a 

 date earlier than the first century of our era. In that century we find 

 it in the writings of Dioscorides and the elder Pliny. 



Dioscorides refers to the matter tliree times, as follows : 



1. 571 : Some persons boil down the roots in wine to a third, strain it, and 

 put it away, using one cyathus in the case of persons suffering from insomnia 

 or severe pain, or those about to be cut or cauterized, when they wish to 

 produce anaesthesia. 



1. 572 f. : Wine is also made from the bark of the root without boiling ; 

 for this purpose put three minae into one metretes of sweet wine. Three 

 cyathi of this should be given to persons about to be cut or cauterized, as has 

 been said above. They do not feel the pain on account of the ensuing 

 stupor. 



1. 574 : This (the "third species" of mandragora) is said to produce stupor 

 when drunk . . . or . . . eaten. The patient falls asleep in the position 

 in which lie takes it, having no sensation for three or four hours from the 

 time at which it is administered. Physicians use this also when they are 

 about to cut or cauterize. 



These are the words of Pliny : 



25. 150: Its narcotic power varies with the strength of the patient; an 

 average dose is one cyathus. It is drunk . . . before incisions and punc- 

 tures to remove sensation ; some persons can be put to sleep merely by the 

 odor. 



Nothing further regarding this use appears in literature until several 

 centuries after the time of Pliny. Tlie last chapter of a work called 

 De Viribus Herbariun* formerly wrongly ascribed to Apuleius of Ma- 



the use of the drug. Literature on the subject also shows that the Scytliians were in 

 the liiibit of producing intoxication by means of inhalation. of the vapor of hemp." 

 The uhiniate source of tlie above is Herod., 4. 75 : Taurris S>v oi ^Kv6at ttjs Kawdfiios 

 rh (rntpfxa ewfciv \d$ui(n. uTroStifOvai virb rovs ttIXovs Kal firfira fwi^aWovat rh <rirepua 

 fVl Tous Sia(paveas \idovs • rh Sf dufjuarai eTrL0a\\6uefoi' Kal aT/uiSa TrapfX""*' Totravrriv 

 wffTe 'KWrjvin}] ovSefxia &v fitv nvpiri diroKpaTriaetf. ol Se 'SKvdai dydfxfvoi Ttj irvpiT) 

 wpvourat. A ver^' dilTercnt story when traced to tlie fountain-head ! 



* Or De Ilerbarum Virtutibus, or De Mcdieaiuinibus Herbarum ; the title is 

 variously given. This passage is from chapter b'^l in the edition published with 

 " Celsus et Alii Medici " by Ciir. Wecliel, Parisii, 1529. 



