mentioned by Shakspeare. 87 
ing paragraph, which, as it indicates its virtue, I may be 
pardoned for transcribing. ‘‘ The true Shang-tang gin-seng 
may be essayed by two men walking together a few miles, 
one having jin-san in his mouth, and the other with his 
mouth empty. When he who has nothing in his mouth is 
nting exceedingly, the other's breath will be just as usual.” 
his passage reminded me of Shakspeare’s 
“ One poor pennyworth of sugar-candy, to make thee long-winded.” 
King Henry IV. act iii. sc. 3. 
Thus, ginseng appears to be chewed in the celestial empire 
as tobacco is with us. Loureiro shews that the Canadian 
root, Nin-sing, is very different in quality, as well as in ap- 
pearance. Galen, writing of mandrake, observes, that its 
virtue resides in its rind, or bark, and he considers it as cold 
in the highest degree. By his terms, hot and cold, we must 
understand the acrid and the narcotic of modern toxicolo- 
gists; and those plants the temperature of which, by the old 
writers, was considered as of the third and fourth degree, 
must merit our particular attention. The plant of Galen was 
the Atropa mandragora, and the Circzeum of Pliny, employed 
by Circe in her incantations. Shakspeare alludes to it when, 
to imply madness, he says, 
“I think you all have drank of Circe’s cup.”’—C. of Errors, act v. sc. 1. 
And again, 
“ Or have we eaten of the insane-root, 
That takes the reason prisoner!—Macleth, acti. sc. 3. 
As the lurid Solanum Melongena, Melanzana, or Mala insana, 
mad-apples, is evidently named from its effect upon the 
brain, so the analogous root of the Atropa mandragora must 
be the insane-root of Shakspeare. It was also administered 
in the liquid form; for Cleopatra says, 
“Ha, ha, 
Give me to drink mandragora, ‘ 
That I might sleep out this great gap of time,””—Ant. & Cl. a.i. sc.5, 
The syrup of it was likewise given as the syrup of poppy : 
* Not poppy nor mandragora, 
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world, 
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep 
Which thou badst yesterday,’’—Othello, act iii. sc. 5. 
As the hemlock and the mandrake, so the hebenon, &c. 
were directed to be gathered at midnight.* 
* Thoughts black, hands up, drugs fit, and time agreeing, 
Confederate season, else no creature seeing. 
Thou mixture rank of midnight weeds collected, 
With Heeate’s ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, 
* Vide Hebenon, p. 90. 
