Al- 



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ii)o6j 



A'A TURE 



34; 



doubt, for nialhemalical leaching is almost as bad as scientific, 

 although mathematics is compulsory in responsions. But it is 

 clear enough that the pro|iosal can only be defentled on the 

 former ground, for il would be preposterous to impose a useless 

 burden on ninety-five jier cent, of undergraduates, in order to 

 raise the standard of a particular five |)er cent. Now, inde- 

 pendently of the fact that the " elements of natural science " is a 

 jihrase very \ague and difficult to define, it may be fairly urged 

 that these "elements" consist of a series of interesting and 

 important facts, of which, however, the connection and inter- 

 action is by no means apparent without a fairly comprehensive 

 knowledge. It would be perfectly useless to have a knowledge 

 of natural laws, when the idea of "law" is, in itself, entirely 

 imperfect, as Melmholtz has held it to be in the unmathematical 

 mind. A knowledge of science may be desirable, but equally so 

 is a knowledge of history, or of English law. But if it be ex- 

 petiient to eidarge the scope of responsions in any way, it is 

 abuiuiantly clear that deeper, instead of wider, knowledge should 

 be required : for example, the standard of mathematics might 

 with good reason, perhai^s, be raised. 



One more remark seems needed in reply to your article. In 

 attributing to the Greeks a true scientific spirit, your corre- 

 spondent shows a strange and radical misconception of the 

 tendency of Greek philosophic thought. The Hellenic spirit 

 always inclined to speculative and metaphysical, as opposed to 

 experimental philosophy, and Aristotle probably did more to 

 retard our knowledge of natural science than any ten men have 

 ever done to advance it. 



The science schof)! at Oxford may, and il is to be hoped will 

 gradually improve, both in size and in quality; especially is there 

 room for hope in the case of the medical school, though it is 

 sadly handicapped by the absence of those opportunities for 

 practical teaching which only a great hosijital, situated in a 

 crowded city, can afford. But it is useless to hope that the 

 w hole natural science school will ever become very large, so long 

 as the tendency towards devolution and decentralisation in 

 university (which ought to mean the highest) education continues. 

 The principle of centralisation of educational forces, the enor- 

 mous importance of which seems nowadays to be so lamentably 

 lost sight of, jiossesses an especial validity in the case of scientific 

 education. If this principle be neglected, it is our own fault 

 if we find, on the one hand, a teaching staff of the highest order 

 without pupils to instruct, and admirably equipped museums 

 and laboratories standing practically idle and in abeyance ; 

 and, on the other hand, the best teachers so scattered up and 

 down the country as to hinder the receptive student from gaining 

 the advantages he wouUl otherwise reap from their combined 

 and systematised tuition. W. E. P. 



Liverpool, August 3. 



The Mandrake. 



I.\ an anonymous work in Chinese, " Tiau-sieh-lui-pien " (l), 

 nine plants are named as frequently to assume the human 

 or animal figures, viz. cypress. Nan-tree,' turnip, mustard, 

 citron, Pachyma cocos, l.yciuiii ihinensc, Phytolacca aciiiosa, and 

 Panax Ciiiseiig.- 



Of these nine, doubtless the Ginseng is the plant most cele- 

 brated for its medicinal virtues imaginarily connected with its 

 anthropomorphous root (2) ; but as far as the multiplicity is in 

 question of the legends talked of analogous to the mandrake- 

 stories, certainly the Shang-luh {Phytolacca acinosa) is the most 

 notorious one. 



Under the heading at the beginning of this letter, I wrote 

 to Nature (vol. li. p. 608, April 25, 1895) a note on the 

 analogies between the mandrake- and the Shangluh-lores, 

 pointing out the two instances, viz. : 



(1) The roots of the two plants are said to have human 

 shape. 



(2) Both plants are said to have the power of shrieking. 

 Continuing in the research from that point, I have found 



further the additional points of analogy, that are as follows : — 



1 Some Japanese botanislsfc.^. Malsumura, '■ Nippon Shoku'uutsu Meii," 

 Tfikyo. 1884. p, 64) identify the Chinese " Nan " with the Euphorbiaceous 

 plai.t, Daptmiphyltutn macropodinjii ; whether the identity is a sound one, 

 I dcj not know. 



- Most plants here enlisted, seem to have the alleged figures in their sub- 

 terraneous members ; only the cllron might produce the fruits of such a 

 configuration. As to the named trees, the cypress of Kien-ling was anciently 

 valued for lis wood, the veins of which represented naturally angels, clouds, 

 men and animals (" Yuen-kien-lui-han," op. cit., torn, ccccxiii. art. "Peh," 

 i); whereas the alleged human figure of ihe "Nan" was apparently 

 formed by its stem and branches (t/. H. Rnnsdell, " Through Siberia," 

 1882, vol. i. p. 158). 



NO. 1398, VOL. 54] 



(3) Tile Shang-hih is said to grow upon the ground beneath 

 which dead man lies ; and the mandrake is recorded to thrive 

 under the gallows (3). 



(4) When the Shang-luh is about to acquire the power of 

 speech, issues fatiii, it is said, crowd about it (4). About the 

 mandrake Richard Eolkard remarks : " In an Anglo-Saxon 

 manuscri|)t of the tenth or eleventh century the inandrake is 

 said to .shine in the night like a candle. The Arabs call it 

 the Devil's Candle because of this nocturnal shining appear- 

 ance. . . ." (5) 



(5) Chang Urh-Ki, a Chinese literatus of the seventeenth 

 century, writes: " A sorcerer carves the root of Shang-luh into 

 a human effigy, vvhich he makes through his spells capable of 

 telling the fortunes" (6). This forcibly brings to mind the old 

 European belief in the diminutive prophetic images made out 

 of mandrake-root ' (7). 



(6) The mandrake had a reputation that it makes men insane 

 and the reason prisoner (8) : correspondingly the red variety of 

 Shang-luh - is described by Su Kung (c. 656) to be so poisonous 

 as to cause men to see the demons (I.e. to make men de- 

 lirious) (9). 



(7) In " Pan-tsau-king," the oldest Chinese authority on 

 materia medica, attributed to the mythical emperor, Shin-Nung, 

 the Shang-luh is mentioned to kill the demoniacal beings ; and, 

 later, Teau Hung-King (452-536) speaks of its influence on the 

 '• Malignant Worms," which it drives out of the possessed (10), 

 this efficiency being no doubt the principal leason for the Tauist 

 usage of the white Phytolacca under the pseudonym of " Luh- 

 fu" (or "Dried Venison") (11). Still later it is reputed by 

 Ta-Ming (i-. 96S) to purge the "Poison of the lOi"'^ (12). 

 (juite conformable to these is the ancient Jewish belief in the 

 exorcising power the herb Baaras (or the inandrake) was re- 

 nowned to possess (13). 



(8) A recipe quoted by Chang Urh-ki from a "Book of 

 Divine Physic" (14) seems to imply the old Chinese usage of 

 the Shang-luh as philtre as much as the mandrake was highly 

 esteemed therefor (15). 



(9) " From the remotest antiquity the mandrake was reputed 

 in the East to possess the property of removing sterility : hence 

 Rachel's desire to obtain the plant that Reuben had found. . . ." 

 (1 5). Now we read in a Chinese herbal that the black, ripe 

 fruit of the Shang-luh is highly valued by rustic women, for it 

 favours their fertility (17). 



(10) Of the medicinal properties these plants are known to 

 possess, some are common to both. Matthioli, referring to 

 Galen, speaks as a cooling stuff' of the mandrake (iS), Li Shi- 

 Chin assigning the same character to the Shang-luh (19). Both 

 herbs were famed for their purgative functions, and both were 

 applied to indolent and scrofulous tumours, and to swellings of 

 the glands (20). 



1 From their traditions, the Chinese appear to have had about the Fung 

 {Ligiiidainl>t:r Ma.viin(nuiczii) two points of analogy to the mandrake-lore. 

 First, Jin Fang's " Shuh-i-ki " (written sixth century, A.D., ed. Wangj torn, 

 ii. fol. 10. b) contains the following passage : " In Nan-Chung there is the 

 ' Liquidamber-Elf ' (Fung-sze-kwei), which is the old tree of the named 

 species transformed to man in its shape. Second, other authorities say a 

 tumour develops upon the old Liquidamber ; after a thunderstorm it elong- 

 ates to three or five feet in length. Now the sorcerer carves this tumour 

 to a human effigy to play black art thereby in a similar manner to the 

 practice with the Shang-luh. However, in case a proper formula is not 

 observed while gathering it, the tumour flies away and never serves the 

 purpose i^cf. Ki Ngan, " Nan-fang-tsau-muh-chwang," fourth century, A.D., 

 Brit. Mus. copy, 15255, a. 5, torn. ii. fol. i, a; Wu Ki-Siun, op. cit., tom. 

 XXXV. fol. 2 a : Sie Tsai-Kang, op. cit., tom. x. fol. 4). Whether related to 

 the latter belief or not, I remember some old men in Japan ever extolling the 

 merits of images of Daikoku, the god of riches, artificially formed out of 

 tumours on Gingko biloba. 



- That is, the variety with its calyx coloured pale rufous. Kan-Pau- 

 Shing, a herbalist of the tenth century, observes of the Shang-luh : *' The 

 red flower accompanies the red root and the white flower the white root " 

 f^See linuma, '"Somoku Dzusetsu," new ed., 1874, vol. vii. fol. 89, b; Li 

 Shi-Chin, toe. cit.) 



3 " The district of Kiang-Nan is much infested by the Ku. On the fifth 

 day of the fifth moon, the future keeper of the Kit puts together in a vessel 

 a hundred ditTerent sorts of animals, varying in size from serpent to louse, 

 which are left therein to mutually devour till but one remains the strongest. 

 This he keeps and feeds in his house as the Ku. Whomsoever the keeper 

 wishes to destroy the Ku infests in the viscera ; consequently the man dies, 

 his treasures passing over to the A'K-keeper's house," &c. (" Sui-shu," 

 written .seventh century, A.U., quoted in Tsiau Hwang, " Tsiau-shi-pih- 

 shing," Brit. Mus. copy. 15316, a, fasc. ii. tom. v. fol. 24, a ; Ching Tsiau, 

 op. cit y\om. xxxiii. fol. \iy b ; cf. Morrison, " Dictionary of the Chinese 

 Language," London and Macao, 1823. vol. iii. part i. p. 288.) Among the 

 stories pertaining to the Ku several incidents occur parallel to those about 

 the m.-tndr.ake (c/. Folkard, loc. cit. ; Li Shi-Chin, sub. " Kin-tsan " ; Kita- 

 mura, KiyQ Shor.an. new ed.. TSkyu, 1882, tom. viii. fol. 22). Just as are 

 the cases with the mandrake and the Shang-luh, a herb called Lang-tang 

 {Scopolia sp. V) is reputed to make men insane, yet withal to cure demoniacal 

 possession (</. Wu Ki-.Siun, op. cit., torn, xxiv. fol. 77,^.; Josephus, loc. cit.). 



