516 PROCEEDINGS OP THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



operated upon do not feel the cutting or burning if they have drunk the 

 outer bark * of this fruit. 



Again, Bartholomaeus Anglicus, compiler of a work called De Pro- 

 prietatibus Rerum, written near the middle of the thirteenth century,! 

 who devotes considerable space to mandragora, mentions this use : 



Lib. 17, cap. 104 : Its bark mixed with wine is given to drink to those 

 who are to be surgically operated upon, in order that they may fall into a 

 stupor and may not feel the pain. 



Pierius Valerianus, referred to above, who flourished in the latter part 

 of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century, says: 



Hieroglyph., lib. 58 : Physicians have had a great deal to say about the 

 soporific power of mandragora, especially this, tliat its use is very common 

 and very effective in putting those who are to be cauterized or cut into a 

 stupor; for it is said that after they have taken a draft thus prepared (i. e. 

 with mandragora) their sleep continues to be very heavy for about four 

 hours, so that they feel neither the cautery nor the knife. 



Lastly, we may cite Giovanni Battista della Porta (1536-1615 A. d.) : 



Mag. Nat., lib. 8, cap. 1 : Dioscorides says that persons will sleep right 

 on in the position in which they have drunk mandragora, all sensation being 

 destroyed for three or four hours from the time when the draft was admin- 

 istered, and that physicians use this when they wish to cauterize or cut 

 any one. 



This is the testimony of writers regarding this u.se of mandragora, so 

 far as I have been able to collect it, and I feel reasonably confident that 

 in the investigation of the question I have not overlooked any reference 

 that would have any considerable weight. I have included the passages 

 from the mediaeval writers for the reason that if it can be shown that it is 

 probable that mandragora was used for this purpose in the middle ages, 

 our belief in this use in antiquity — which is attested by so few passages 

 from ancient writers — will be greatly strengthened. 



* It is not clear just what Bruno means by exteriorem huiiia pomi cortirem. He 

 \ises the word pomi evidently because he is commenting on (hulaim, i. e., fxavSpayo- 

 pSiv fxrjKa. Probably exteriorem huius pomi corticem is a condensed expression for 

 exteriorem cortirem radlcis Jierbae e (jna nascitnr hoc pomnm, in which case corticem has 

 its usual' meaning of bark; otherwise we should have to translate "the outer rind 

 of this fruit," which could only be a mistake of the writer, referring to the fruit 

 tlie virtues elsewhere recorded of the bark. 



t See the introduction to the extracts translated by Robert Steele, Medieval 

 Lore (London, IS'.i:!), p. I. 



