The universe, or, The infinitely great and the infinitely little / by F.A. Pouchet.

  • Félix Archimède Pouchet
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The universe, or, The infinitely great and the infinitely little / by F.A. Pouchet. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    They possessed the same power as the enchanted philtres of Circe, to which Pliny and Dioscorides had given this name. One thing is certain, the mandrake is one of the most fatal poisons we possess. A charming little plant, all covered with hairs, which abounds on the slopes of Mount Ida, the dictamnus of Crete (Origanum Dictamnus) was formerly considered the most marvellous vulnerary that nature ever pre¬ sented to man. The gods themselves had revealed its omnipotence to him, and animals instinctively made use of it. It was with this dictamnus that Venus dressed the wounds of iEneas. Aristotle tells us that the goats scattered over the celebrated mountain, so soon as the hunter has pierced them with an arrow, seek out the plant and eat it in order to make the arrow drop out and so to heal the wound. Half a century ago, who would have dared to deny such a wonderful property, when at that time a noble work on Greece contained a long chapter on the virtues of the divine vulnerary, and when, in addition to this, the reader might see an engraving representing a goat pierced with arrows and browsing upon the salutary herb? In this way, unfortunately, did the authority of the learned retard and fetter the progress of truth.