BOTANIC PHYSICIAN. 
_oil and resin, forming a fluid more or less thick and tenacious, tsual- 
___ ly also odorous and pungent, termed a Balsam. Balsams also con- 
_ tain a quantity of a peculiar vegetable acid, the acid of benzoin, 
_ Another proximate principle of some vegetables, similar in many 
its properties to the essential oils, is camrnor. — It isa solid tena . 
cious concrete, of a white color, semi-transparent, having a strong 
_ peculiar smell, and a penetrating taste. It is insoluble in water, but 
completely soluble in alcohol, ether, and oils: it evaporates at the 
common temperature of the atmosphere, and is volatilized in close 
vessels without decomposition. When its volatilization, however, 
is prevented, and heat applied, it is decomposed ; a volatile oil, fra- 
grant and pungent, of a rich yellow color, amounting nearly to one 
third of the weight of the camphor, distils over; a quantity of chat= 
Coal remains as a residuum, and hydro-carbonate, and carbonic acid 
3 escape with a portion of the peculiar acid termed camphoric. 
r, therefore, differs from the essential oils, in containing a 
Proportion of carbon, and perhaps also of oxygen. 
phor is found in distinct vesicles in the wood and bark of se 
getables ; it is also contained in many essential oils. Asa 
€, t possesses considerable powers. 
same relation which camphor has to the volatile oils, WAX - 
Seems to bear to the fixed oils. This substance js a product of ve- 
getation. It is solid and tenacious, easily fusible, and inflammable. 
It does not combine with the alkalies, but, when melted, unites 
with expressed. or essential oils. It consists of carbon and hydro- — 
gen, in the proportion nearly of 13 of the former to 2 of the latter: — 
some have supposed that it also contains a quantity of oxygen. : 
Fecura is a name appropriated to a dry, white, insipid powder, — 
contained in many vegetables, particularly in the tuberose roots and — 
| gramineous seeds, It is extracted by beating the dried root, wood, — 
or seeds, with a large quantity of water ; the fluid becomes milky, ie 
from ision of a white powder through it. This, when dried S 
is the fee uch, when not united with any of the other principles — 
ofthe ve; e, is mild and insipid. It is insoluble in cold-water, — 
but with boiling water it forms a jelly. “Itis also insolable in aleo- 
hol. It is an oxyd having carbon and hydrogen for its base. [tis 
capable of being converted by certain processes into saccharine mat- 
ter. By destructive distillation it affords a large quantity of acetous 
acid. The fecula is the most nutritious principle of plants, and1s 
contained in great quantity in all vegetables used as food. 
€ 
_ Giuren.—The farina of some vegetables is found to contain @ 
viscous, elastic, and fibrous-like substance, which, from its close re- 
semblance in properties to the animal product termed gluten, has 
been named vegetable gluten. It is insipid, elastic, totally ins 
ble in water, and very sparingly soluble in alcohol. By the action © 
of nitrous acid, it is converted. into oxalic acid, and by exposure to 
heat in close vessels, it affords a. large quantity of ammonia. Its 
analysis proves, that it contains more azot than any other vegetable 
principle. 2 ay Gee Bo ag 
A.sumMEN.—This is another principle of vegetables, which 1 
