Chapter XXXV: Here It Is Told of Master Thaddeus of Bologna

Master Thaddeus, as he was instructing his medical scholars, propounded that whoever should continue for nine days to eat egg-plant [71] would go mad.

And he proved it according to the law of psychic [72].

One of his scholars, hearing this lesson, decided to put it to the test. He began to eat egg-plant, and at the end of nine days went before his master and said: master, that lesson you read us is not true, because I have put it to the test, and I am not mad.

And he rose and showed him his behind.

Write, said the master, that all this about the egg-plant has been proved, and he wrote a fresh essay on the subject.