524 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



the mandragora.* What is said about this use in the other two pas- 

 sages in Dioscorides has every appearance of being based on fact. Tlie 

 two ways of preparing the liquor — with and without boiling — are care- 

 fully described, and the proper doses are stated, — one cy a thus of the 

 former, three of the latter. It seems conclusive to me that whoever 

 originally wrote the statements which appear here (and I recognize in 

 Dioscorides not the original author of them, but rather the intelligent 

 transmitter) knew of this use of the plant. 



At the beginning of this investigation I bad hoped to find somewhere 

 in classical or later literature an account of the use of anaesthetics in the 

 case of some definite individual, such, for example, as the account of the 

 operation on IVIarius for varicose veins, from which it is at once apparent 

 that the patient took no anaestheticf I am now quite certain that no 

 such testimony is to be found. We must base our faith in the tradition 

 upon presumptive evidence. 



To recapitulate : Eleven writers state that mandragora was used for 

 this purpose; all of them probably had access to earlier writings in 

 which the statement appeared. In the case of eight of these eleven — 

 Giovanni Battista della Porta, Valerianus, Bartholomaeus Auglicus, 

 Bruno Astensis, the author of tiic Dynamidia, Isidorus, the author of the 

 chapter in the work of Pseudo-Apuleius, Pliny — the i-eputation of the 

 writer, or the manner in which this use is stated, is such as to render 

 the testimony of no importance. Regarding the other three, we may 

 draw the following conclusions : The words of Serapion and Avicenna, 

 on account of the important distinction observed in the quantities 

 necessary to produce sleep and stupor respectively, indicate very 

 strongly that the plant was used for this purpose in their time; and the 

 fact that this seems probable for that time gives us much more confidence 

 in the words of the ancient writers who record the use. The general 

 tone of the writings of Dioscorides is sober and reliable ; for this reason 



* It. Kobort is inexact when he says (Ueber den Zustand der Arzneikundo vor 

 18 Jahrlimulcrten, Halle, 1887, p. 21), " Jedeiifalls fiihrt Dioscorides von meiireren 

 Sohiiiiiceen ausdriicklicb an, dass sie die Scihnierzenipfindunij so stark iierabsetzen, 

 dass man Glieder ainputiercn und das Gliilieisen aiiwcnden kann, oiine dass der 

 Patient erheblicb dabei zu leiden iiatte." Dioscorides mentions no plant in tiiis 

 connection except tiie true mandragora and the doubtful " tliird species." 



t Cicero, Tusc. Disp., 2. 35 and 2. 53; Plutarcb, Marius, C. Seneca writes 

 (Epist. Moral., 10. 2 [78]), witiiout giving the name, of a man wlio read during a 

 similar operation : Tibi fortissimus quisque ct victor doloris occurrat : ille qui cura 

 varices e.xsecandas praeberet legere libruni perseveravit. 



