The Mandrake (Atropa Mandragora) has been exceptionally famous in
medical history. Its reputation for the cure of sterility is alluded
to in the story of Leah and Rachel (Genesis xxx, 14-16). It is not,
however, certain that the Hebrew word “dudaim” should be translated
mandrake. Various Biblical scholars have questioned this which was
the Septuagint rendering. Lilies, violets, truffles, citrons, and
other fruits have been suggested. In Cant., vii, 14, the same plant
is described as fragrant, and the odour of the mandrake is said to be
disagreeable. Mandragora is described in Chinese books of medicine,
and from Hippocrates down to almost modern times every writer on the
art of healing treats it with reverence. Hippocrates asserts that a
small dose in wine, less than would occasion delirium, will relieve the
deepest depression and anxiety. The roots of the mandrake are often
of a forked shape and were supposed to represent the human form, some
being regarded as male and others as female. This fancy originated with
Pythagoras, who conferred on the mandrake the name of anthropomorphon.
It was said that when the roots were drawn from the earth they gave
a human shriek. Shakespeare in _Romeo and Juliet_ alludes to this
superstition:
And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth
That living mortals hearing them run mad.
In _Othello_ again Shakespeare refers to this medicine, and
particularly to its alleged narcotic properties:
Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world.
In _Antony and Cleopatra_, too, Cleopatra says, “Give me to drink
mandragora” (that she may sleep out the great gap of time while Antony
is away); and Banquo in _Macbeth_, when he asks, “Or have we eaten of
the insane root that takes the reason prisoner?” is believed to allude
to the mandrake.
There is a good deal of evidence that mandragora was used in ancient
and mediæval times not only as a soporific, but also as an anæsthetic.
Dioscorides explicitly asserts this property of the root more than
once. He describes a decoction of which a cupful is to be taken for
severe pains, or “before amputations, or the use of the cautery, to
prevent the pain of those operations.” Elsewhere he alludes to its
employment in parturition, and in another passage dealing with a wine
prepared from the external coat of the root, says, “The person who
drinks it falls in a profound sleep, and remains deprived of sense
three or four hours. Physicians apply this remedy when the necessity
for amputation occurs, or for applying the cautery.” Pliny refers
to the narcotic powers of the mandrake, and among later writers its
effects are often described. Josephus mentions a plant which he calls
Baaras, which cured demoniacs, but could only be procured at great
risk, or by employing a dog to uproot it, the dog being killed in the
process. This Baaras is supposed to have been mandrake. Dr. Lee in his
Hebrew Lexicon quotes from a Persian authority an allusion to a similar
root which, taken inwardly, “renders one insensible to the pain of even
cutting off a limb.”
Baptista Porta describes the power of the mandrake in inducing deep
sleep, and in A. G. Meissner’s “Skizzen,” published at Carlsruhe in
1782, there is a story of Weiss, surgeon to Augustus, King of Poland
and Elector of Saxony, who surreptitiously administered a potion (of
what medicine is not stated) to his royal master, and during his
insensibility cut off a mortifying foot.