344 



NATURE 



[August 13, \Z)(i 



So far the many analogies 1)elween the mandrake- and the 

 I'hytolacca-stories appear to militate against the jirobability of 

 the independent growths, if not origins, of the folli-lores 

 connected with the two plants. 



Further, it may be worthy of notice (hat, while the ancient 

 Europeans possessed a hazy knowledge of tlie anthropomorphous 

 ("linseng (21), the Chinese of middle ages had an equally 

 circuitous acquaintance with the mandrake. The fact is well 

 evinced in the following passage of Chau Mih (1232-130S) 

 (22) : " Several thousand miles west of the Region of Moslem,' 

 the land produces one substance extremely poisonous, which is 

 shaped like man as our Ginseng is. It is called ' Yah-puh-lii,' and 

 grows under the ground several (7;rt«^'deep [l chang = 10 Chinese 

 feet]. Should a man bruise its skin, its poison would adhere to 

 and kill him. The only method of gathering it is this : dig 

 around the said substance a hollow deep enough for a man's 

 management therein ; with one end of a thong tie up the .sub- 

 stance lightly, and with other end bind round a big dog's leg. 

 Now flog the dog ; he will, striving to avoid the danger, pluck 

 the substance from the ground, but he will die instantly. The 

 stufi' thus procured is buried under other ground, whence it is 

 taken out a year after ; then it is dried and prepared with 

 another medicine. When man takes internally a bit of this 

 mixed with wine, it makes him soon fall down unconscious even 

 of cuts and chops ; still there is a certain drug which, if used 

 within three days, can recover the man. It is very likely that 

 the celebrated Hwa To [a surgeon who flourished in the third 

 century, a.d.] barely resorted to this drug when, as is tradition- 

 ally said, he cut open his patients' bellies to cleanse viscela with- 

 out harm. Presently we learn our Imperial Hospital possesses 

 two pieces of this drug." 



The readers of the above passage scarcely need my annotations 

 that the story is obviously composed of what Josephus and 

 Dioscorides record (23), and also that the name " Vah-puh-lU" 

 is nothing but "Vbiuh," the Arabic word for the mandrake - 

 (24). 



Kefereiues. — (i) In " Hai-shan-sien-kwantsung-shu," tom. 

 xlvi. (published 1847). pt. i.,fol. 76, b; the Imperial Cyclopaedia, 

 " Yuen-kien-lui-han," lyoi, passim. (2) " Encyclopjedia Britan- 

 nica," 9th ed., vol. x p. 605. (3) Cf. Folkard, " Plant Lore, 

 Legends, and Lyrics," 1884, p. 427 ; also my letter in Nature, 

 op. cit. (4) Sie Tsai-Kang, " Wu-tsah-tsu," c. 1610, Jap. ed., 

 tom. X., fol. 41, /), quoted in my letter, iihi supra. (5) Folkard, 

 /. c. (6) ■' Hau-ngan-hien-hwa," Brit. Mus. copy. I53t6, a, 

 tom. i., fol. 4, /;. (7) Same as (5) and (8). (8) " Encyc. 

 Brit.", vol. XV. p. 476. (9) and (10) Li Shi-Chin, " Pan- 

 tsau-kang-muh," art. " Shang-luh." (11) Ching Tsiau, 

 "Tung-chi," Brit. Mus. copy, 152S1, a—d, tom. Ixv., fol. 

 28, a. (12) Same as (9). (13) Josephus, "Jewish War," 

 trans. Traill, 1851, Ijook vii. p. 230. {14) Same as (6). 

 (15) and (16) Folkard, op. dl. (17) Wu Ki-Siun. " Shih- 

 woh-ming-shih-tu-kau," completed c. 1848, ed. Ono, Tokyo, 

 1884, tom. xxiv., fol. 16. (18) "I Discorsi, &c.," 

 Venetia, 156S, p. 1136. (19) Same as (9). (20) Cf. W. Rhind, 

 " History of the Vegetable Kingdom," 1874, p. 552 ; .same 

 as (8) and (g). {ii] e.g. Cruden, " A Complete Concordance 

 to the Old and New Testament," 20th ed. , p. 436. (22) 

 " Chi-ya-tung-tsah-chau," Brit. Mus copy, 15316, a, tom. i. 

 fol. 41-42. (23) Josephus, /. c. ; Mart Mathee, " Les six 

 Livres de Pedacion Dioscoride," Lyon, 1559, 1. iv. , ch. Ixv. 

 p. 274. (24) Pickering, "Chronological History of Plants," 

 Boston, 1879, p. 247. Ku.MAGUSU Minakata. 



15 Blithfield Street, Kensington, W. , July 16. 



P.S. — In writing the present letter, I have not consulted the 

 late Prof. Veth's e.xhaustive account of the mandrake-stories 

 referred to in Nature {vol. li. p. 573.) To my great regret 

 it is written in Dutch, a language which is beyond the reach 

 of my understanding. K. M. 



1 In another work by same author, " Kwei-.sinlsah-shih," quoted by Li 

 Shi-Chin, up. cit., sub. " Yah-puh-lii," this herb is said to grow in the 

 "Region of Moslem, north of the Desert," and there it is indicated that 

 the degraded officers of an extreme ignominy used this drug |to feign self- 

 murder). The Imperial " Vuen-kienlui-han." of. cit., tom. ccccxi., gives a 

 proverb : " Eat the herb by name Yah-puh-lii ; you die, still you are not 

 dead." 



^ Fang I-Cbi, the most erudite Chinese of Christian faith, referring to a 

 work of the thirteenth (?) century, " Fang-yu-shing-loh," gives the habitat 

 of the narcotic " Yah-puh-lii-yoh " in the country of Medina ("Tung-ya." 

 1643, tom, xli., fol. 8, b"). Conventionally the latter name might he inter- 

 preted as the "Drug named Yah-puh hi," but I .im rather inclined to 

 trace it to the name " Yabrochak " used in Palestine for the mandr:ike 

 (Pickering, toe. cit.) 



NO. 1398, VOL. 54] 



THE ECLIPSE OF THE SCN. 



J F it be true that science advances through failures, 

 ^ the clouds which prevented the observation of the 

 total eclipse of the sun last Sunday may be a blessing in 

 disguise. During the past quarter of a century, several 

 astronomers have taken up the problem of disco\ering a 

 means of photographing the corona in broad daylight, 

 but the results have not been very encouraging. In the 

 photography of solar prominences. Prof Hale and Dr. 

 Deslandres have obtained distinctly valuable pictures, 

 and, were it possible to delineate the corona with the same 

 success on any day when the sun is shining, our know- 

 ledge of the nature of that solar appendage would 

 increase much more rapidly than it can at present, when 

 the only opportunities for studying it are afforded by the 

 brief moments of totality of a solar eclipse. Perhaps 

 last Sunday's experience will induce solar physicists to 

 give further attention to the artificial reproduction of 

 eclipse conditions. It is, of course, not suggested that 

 every-day observations will make eclipse expeditions un- 

 necessary — there will be work for astronomers during 

 solar eclipses for a long time to come — but if it were 

 possible to carry out systematic researches on the 

 structure and constitution of the solar surroundings, 

 instead of depending entirely upon the rare intervals 

 when the photosphere is obscured, several moot points 

 might be settled before the end of this century. 



Observations of the total eclipse of Sundav last were 

 made impossible by clouds. From all along the line of 

 obserx'ers, the same report of foiled intentions has been 

 received. At Vadsti, and in the neighbourhood, the sun 

 was entirely obscured during totality, and no observations 

 of scientific importance were obtained. The party of 

 Russian astronomers who stationed themselves at the 

 village of Orloftskoe, on the Amur, were equalh- unsuc- 

 cessful in making observations. The eclipse was \isible as 

 a partial eclipse at Tokio, but at Akeshi, in the island of 

 Yezo, where the Japanese, American, and British observers 

 had set up their instruments, the weather was wet and 

 the sky cloudy, and it is reported that the preparations 

 made ended in a fiasco. It is not definitely known what 

 happened at Esashi, where Prof Todd and Dr. Deslandres 

 were stationed, but little hope of success is entertained. A 

 telegram received at Copenhagen from Bodo, Norway, 

 states that a photographer from Flensburg has taken 

 eleven photographs of the eclipse at Bredvik, on the 

 Skjerstad Fiord, but more details are needed before an 

 opinion can be expressed as to their value. News has 

 yet to be received from the British observing party at 

 No\-a Zembla, and from the expeditions of the Russian 

 Astronomical Society stationed at Enontckis (Finland;, 

 the mouth of the Obi, and Olekminsk, on the Lena. 



Mr. Norman Lockyer has sent us the following 

 telegram from Kid Island, where he estaljlished a station 

 to observe the eclipse : "Although the sun was clouded 

 during totality, the sight was most impressive. The 

 darkness was so great that lamps were needed. The 

 party from H.M.S. Volagc consisted of seventy- seven 

 observers all trained to make notes or drawings of 

 particular characteristics of eclipse phenomena, such as 

 coronal structure, extent of the corona, and the colours 

 of sky, cloud, and land and water surfaces, and to take 

 the times of contact. The party was also provided with 

 spectroscopes for analysing the lights of the corona and 

 prominences, prismatic cameras for photographing the 

 spectra of these objects, and polariscopes." With such 

 an army of organised observers, an immense amount of 

 valuable information would have been accumulated had 

 the eclipse been visible. The exceptional opportunities 

 for accurate observation offered by the presence of the 

 Training Squadron gives astronomers reason for keen 

 disappointment at the failure of the eclipse as an observ- 

 able e\cnt ; but students of science are used to the 



