744 THE UNIVERSE. 



and Dioscorides had given this name. One thing is cer- 

 tain, the mandrake is one of the most fatal poisons we 

 possess. 



A charming little plant, all covered with hairs, which 

 abounds on the slopes of Mount Ida, the dictamnus of Crete 

 ( Origanum Dictamnus), was formerly considered the most 

 marvellous vulnerary that nature ever presented to man. 

 The gods themselves had revealed its omnipotence to him, 

 and animals instinctively made use of it. It was with this 

 dictamnus that Venus dressed the wounds of ^Eneas. Aris- 

 totle tells us that the goats scattered over the celebrated 

 mountain, so soon as the hunter has pierced them with an 

 arrow, seek out the plant and eat it in order to make the 

 arrow drop out and so to heal the wound. Half a century 

 ago who would have dared to deny such a wonderful prop- 

 erty, when at that time a noble work on Greece contained 

 a long chapter on the virtues of the divine vulnerary, and 

 when, in addition to this, the reader might see an engrav- 

 ing representing a goat pierced with arrows and browsing 

 upon the salutary herb ? 



In this way, unfortunately, did the authority of the 

 learned retard and fetter the progress of truth. 



