The reason, no doubt, was that the statement these passages contain was looked upon as a vulgar error of the period, which had imposed on the credulity of the authors. Dr. Woodville,[9] speaking of the use of mandragora by the ancients, says, “They employed it principally in continued watchings, and in those more painful and obstinate affections which were found to resist less powerful medicines.” He gives, in a foot note, a reference to the place in Dioscorides from which the passages above quoted are taken, and had he believed in the performance of operations without pain, we may conclude he would not have passed over so important a fact in silence. With the knowledge we at present possess, however, a different view must be taken of the subject; and it must at least be allowed that the statements of the ancients had some foundation in truth. This is rendered more certain by the circumstance that atropa mandragora belongs to the same genus as belladonna, which has a greater power in annulling the common sensibility than any plant in present use, unless it be aconite. The loss of reason, described by Dioscorides as caused by mandragora, is a striking symptom of poisoning by the class of plants (the solanaceæ) to which it belongs. It appears from some remarks of Aretæus[10] and Cælius Aurelianus[11] that people were in the habit of taking mandragora as an inebriating agent in the time of the ancients, as an allied plant, the datura, is used at present by the natives of India. This practice would lead to a correct knowledge of the quantity which might be taken with impunity. The mandrake is scarcely used in medicine at present, but its narcotic properties are well established. Hoffberg[12] administered the root in doses of three grains in some cases of gout, with the effect of relieving the pain. Cases of poisoning by belladonna end, with very few exceptions, in recovery, however large the dose, and however alarming the symptoms may be; and, taking all the above circumstances into account, it is probable, that after ascertaining the right quantity to be administered for the purpose, this medicine or mandragora might be used, with considerable success, and no great danger, to prevent the pain of operations, if chemistry had not supplied us with agents much more convenient.