HISTORY. 19 
2. The industrious trading nation of the Pheenicians,’ and 
through them probably the Israelites, were as well acquainted as 
the Egyptians with the above-mentioned drugs, to which from 
the Old Testament Scriptures may still be added, aloes, cinna- 
mon, coriander, saffron, ginger, olive-oil, sugar, and pepper.® 
In their religious ceremonies these people evidently employed 
aromatic substances in large amount. Drugs which at that time: 
were exceedingly highly prized, but which for a long time past 
have become completely obsolete, were Radix Costi* and the 
Aloeswood of Aquilaria Agallocha, Roxburgh.‘ The high es- 
teem with which these two aromatic substances were regarded 
from that time until the eighteenth century is scarcely intelligi- 
ble to us: and in India and China it still continues undiminished. 
3. The Chinese were also, without doubt, at a very early 
period, familiar with the medicinal substances which were native: 
to that country, as, for instance, with camphor, with remedies: 
from their animal world, and with such from the mineral king- 
dom. Since cinnamon was certainly exported in the earliest 
times, it may be presumed that foreign drugs were probably at. 
that time also imported into China. The respective ancient lit- 
erature of this country, however, has still been too little seruti- 
nized to afford reliable information regarding these conditions. 
schmuck agyptischer Mumien,” Gartenlaube, Leipzig, 1884, 628 and loc. 
cit. (note 3). [Also, particularly, Woenig, ‘“‘ Die Pflanzen im alten 
Aegypten,” Leipzig, 1886. F. B. P.] 
1 Flickiger, ‘‘ Pharmakognosie,” pp. 119, 120, 560. 
* The plants mentioned in the Bible have led to widely-extended dis- 
cussions. It is sufficient here to name the following modern writings. 
relating to the subject: Cultrera, ‘* Flora biblica ovvero spiegazione delle 
piante menzionate nella S, Scrittura,” Palermo, 1861; Ursinus, ‘‘ Arbore-. | 
tum bibl. c. contin. hist. plant. bibl.,” November, 1865; Duschak, “‘ Zur 
Botanik des Talmud,” Pest, 1871; Hamilton, ‘‘ Botanique de la Bible,” 
Nice, 1872; Smith, ‘‘ Bible Plants, their History, a Review of the Opin- 
ions of Various Writers regarding their Identifications,” London, 1878; 
Wilson, ‘‘ The Botany of Three Historical Records (Genesis, New Testa- 
ment, Assise of Weight and Measure),” Edinburgh, 1879; leunios ore a 
d@ Histoire naturelle de la Bible,” Paris, 1885, 4to, pp, 116, 112 plates. — 
3 Fliickiger, ‘‘ Pharmakognosie,” pp. 444, gees sopmiae “Materia 
_ Medica of Western India,” 1884, P. asia? poeta 
_ 4 Flickiger, loc. cit., 195, 
