314 A COMPENDIUM OF 
‘spontaneously, and dries in irregular tears or 
masses of a brown, or a brown-red color; when 
broken, the fracture is waxy and splintery; 
odor, of its own kind and balsamic; taste, bit- 
ter, slightly acrid, and to most people pleasant. 
When rubbed with water the mixture does not 
become white, which is the case with the other 
gum resins. Myrrh is freely soluble in alcohol 
and ether, The inferior qualities of Myrrh are 
like those of the other gums gathered from the 
ground; the fragments or masses are dark and 
very unsightly in appearance, and contain sand, 
sticks and other foreign matter. Gum Myrrh 
contains nearly equal proportions of resin and 
gum, the resin predominating by about 10 per 
cent., the average being 50 per cent., a small 
quantity of volatile oil named myrrhal and a 
bitter extractive matter. The gum myrrh has 
tonic, expectorant, stimulant and emmenagogue 
Properties, This gum has been an article of 
trade from the earliest history of man, and is 
frequently mentioned in the Bible as an offering 
of value. The name is probably of Arabic ori- 
gin, and signifies bitter; from the Latin myrrha, 
a kind of stone, and the Greek murrha, Myrrh. 
_, Boswellia Thurifera, Boswellia Carterii, Ol- 
ibanum, or Frankis cense Trees,—Natural order 
Burseracez. The two species of the Boswellia 
yield the Olibanum of commerce, The Olibanum 
trees are found at an elevation of several thou- 
sand feet above the level of the sea, on the 
southern coast of Arabia and the eastern coast 
of Africa. These trees with their handsome 
green foliage, are said to perfume the air with 
their balsamic odor for miles around, ‘The 
