^ 



358 



mode of cuklvatlon feeins neceflary, and is pradifed in Amboina bv 

 the Dutch, by whom it is kept a profound fecret/ If the Clove was 

 known to the Greeks, it cannot be difcovered by their writings, nor 

 is there any didincl account of it given by Pliny; but it feems in fome 

 meafure applicable to the defcription of the Carunfel of Serapion, and 

 the Charumfel Bellun of Avicenna,^ fo that this fpice, as well as the 

 Nutmeg, was probably known to the Arabians. 



The fpice ufed here, and known by the name of Cloves, is the 

 unexpanded fiov/ers or rather calyces, v/hich are found to be more 



% 



aromatic than in their advanced ftate ; they are of a dark brown colo 

 which they acquire from the fmoke to which they are expofed ; for 

 order to preferve the Cloves it is cuilomary firft to immerfe them in 

 boiling water, and then fubjed them to fumigation, or merely to fumi- 

 gate them, and afterwards expofe them to the fun for further exficcation. 



he Clove has a ftrong agreeable fmell, and a bitteriih liot not 

 ery pungent taile : theie qualities are completely extracted by redified 



After infpiffating the filtered tindure, the remaining extrad: 

 has little frnell, but its tafte is exceffively hot and fiery. Cloves im- 

 pregnate water more ftrongly with their fmell than they do 



but not near fo much with their tafte ; and in diftillation v^rith water 

 they yield bne-fixth of their weight of efTential oil, fmelling ftrongly 



of the Cloves, but lefs pungent than the fpirituous extrad 



/' The oil of Cloves commonly met with in the fhops, and received 

 from the Dutch, is indeed highly acrimonious : but this oil is plainly 



not the genuine diftilled oil of Cloves, but confiderably more pun 

 gent, containing half its weight of an infipid -expreffed oil : it is 

 probably from an admixture of the refinous part of the Clove that 

 this fophifticated oil receives both its acrimony "and high colour." ^ 

 , Clove is accounted the hottefl; and moil acrid of the aromatics. and 



by ading as a powerful ftimulant to the mufcular fibres, may in fome 



cafes of atonic gout, paralyfis, &c. fuperfede moft others of the 



tic clafs ; and the foreign oil, by its great acrimony, is alfo 



om?*" 



well adapted for feveral external purpol 



The effentlal oil is the preparation of this fpice direded by the 

 pharmacopoeias, which, as w^ell as the Clove itfelfi enters feveral 



icinal compofitions. 





^^ r 



Rumth. I c. / Fide J. BauJj. H'ljl. vol i. p. 426* ^ LewtSy M, M. p, 203 



JP^D OF THE SECOND VOLUM 



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