De Materia Medica, Section 4: Mandrake, and its names

A warning before the Greek: mandrake is poisonous, and every part of it can kill. What follows is a record of what ancient doctors believed and did, never a recipe.

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• 4.75.1 Mandrake, and its names. Mandrake. Some call it antimimon, some bombochylon, and some Circaea, since the root is…
• 4.75.3a A wine against pain. Some boil the roots down in wine to a third, strain it and store…
• 4.75.3b More of it kills. The sap, drunk in the amount of two obols’ weight with honey-water, brings up…
• 4.75.6 The stupefying fruit. The apples, eaten or smelled, are stupefying, and so is the juice pressed from…

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