[872] The Atropa mandragora autumnalis of Bertolini, the Autumnal mandrake.
[873] The Greek for “male.”
[874] “Dementing.” Fée remarks that the “Morion” in reality is a different plant, and queries whether it may not be the Atropa belladonna of Linnæus, the Belladonna, or Deadly nightshade, mentioned above in Note 864.
[875] The female, or black, mandrake.
[876] See B. xx. c. 85.
[877] The superstitions with reference to the Mandrake extended from the earliest times till a very recent period. It was used in philtres, and was supposed to utter piercing cries when taken up; Josephus counsels those whose business it is to do so, to employ a dog for the purpose if they would avoid dreadful misfortunes. All these notions probably arose from the resemblance which the root bears to the legs and lower part of the human body. See B. xxii. c. 9, where we have queried in a Note whether the Eryngium may not have been the “mandrake,” the possession of which was so much coveted by the wives of Jacob.
[878] “Pestis est.”
[879] In the same way that chloroform is now administered.
[880] “Cicuta.” Identified with the Conium maculatum of Linnæus, Common hemlock or Keghs. It grows in the vicinity of Athens, and probably formed the basis of the poisons with which that volatile people “recompensed,” as Fée remarks, the virtues and exploits of their philosophers and generals. Socrates, Phocion, and Philopœmen, are said to have been poisoned with hemlock; but in the case of Socrates, it was probably combined with opium and other narcotics. See B. xiv. cc. 7, 28, and B. xxiii. c. 23.
[881] He has more than once stated, that it is not his object to enter into a description of poisons.