226 On the Campus 



were reproduced in the growing plant; their very pains 

 and cries renewed, especially for him who profanely 

 dared to pull the mandrake from the earth. The curious 

 may consult Gerarde. 



These ideas, it is needless to say, are very old; Pliny 

 refers to them, and, if I recollect well, Vergil has his hero 

 pull up some wild plant amid the strangest of sights and 

 sounds. With these old myths are tied up, perchance, 

 the mandrakes of King James's version. Nay, the super- 

 stition still survives; look at the wood-cut in Webster's 

 Unabridged, and you will discover that the artist who set 

 out to illustrate the word mandrake for that somewhat 

 venerable authority was by no means able to free himself 

 from the ancient spell. Credulity is evermore a factor 

 in the compound called human nature. Men love to be 

 fooled, or to find some support for belief in manifest ab- 

 surdity. There is nothing so silly but has its advocates 

 among men who ought to know better. 



A year or two since, a man brought from Ohio to the 

 University of Iowa an innocent five-parted, digitate, 

 black fungus. It was treasured in alcohol. Why? Be- 

 cause of its origin! An honest mechanic, meeting with 

 accident, lost his fingers under the surgeon 's knife. The 

 amputated members were neglected, but presently dis- 

 covered and duly buried in the garden. The following 

 spring from the "identical spot" uprose a swarthy hand, 

 black without, white within. The hand was a perfect 

 mairirde-gloire for that sensation-loving community. The 

 matter was discussed in newspapers. A long and careful 

 account of the wonder was prepared, put in print, and 

 circulated among the friends of the deceased fingers! 



