1G6 



ANACARDIACE^. 



History — The terebinth was well known to the ancients ; it is the 

 repfxivBos of Theophrastus, repe^ivQos of other authors, and the Alah of 

 the Old Testament/ Among its products, the kernels were regarded 

 by Dioscorides as unwholesome, though agreeable in taste. By pressing 

 them, the original Oil of Turpentine, repe^lvOivov 'iXaiov, a mixture of 

 essential and fat oil was obtained, as it is in the East to the present 

 day. The resinolis juice of the stem and branches, the true, primitive 

 turpentine, /jj/TiV;; rep/uiivdly?], was celebrated as the finest of all analogous 

 products, and. preferred both to mastich and the pinic resins. To the 

 latter however the name of turpentine was finally applied."^ 



Collection — The resinous juice is secreted in the bark, according to 

 linger,' and Marchand,^ in special cells precisely as mastich in P. Lentis- 

 CU8. That found in commerce is collected in the island of Scio. To sonie 

 extent it exudes spontaneously, yet in greater abundance after incisions 

 made in the stems and branches. This is done in spring, and the resin 

 continues to flow during the whole summer ; but the quantity is so 

 small that not more that 10 or 11 ounces are obtained from a large tree 

 in the course of a year. The turpentine, hardened by the coolness of 

 the night, is scraped from the stem down wliicli it has flowed, or from 

 flat stones placed at the foot of the tree to receive it. As it is, when 

 thus collected, always mixed with foreign substances, it is purified to 

 some extent by straining through small baskets, after having been 

 hquefied by exposure to the sun. 



When I'ournefort' visited Scio in 1701, the island was said to produce 

 scarcely SOO okes or ocche (one occa = 2-82 lb. avdp.); a century later 



Olivier" stated, that the turpentine was becoming very scarce, 200 ocche 

 only, or even less, being the annual yield. It was then carefully col- 

 lected by means of little earthen vessels tied to the incised stems. The 

 trade is asserted to be now almost exclusively in the hands ot 

 tlie Jews, who dispose of the drug in the interior part of the Turkish 

 iimpire.'' ^ 



To-P^^'^^^P^^^"--^ specimen collected by Maltass near Smyrna in 

 18o8 was, after ten years, of a light yellowish colour, scarcely fluid 

 though perfectly transparent, nearly of the odour of melted colophony 

 or mastich, and without much taste. We found it readily soluble m 

 spirit of wine, aniylic alcohol, glacial acetic acid, benzol, or acetone, the 

 solution in each case being very slightly fluorescent. The alcoholic 

 solution reddens litmus, and is neither bitter nor acrid. Two parts ot 

 this genuine turpentine dissolved in one of acetone deviate a ray '' 



of 



polarized light 



to the right * in a column 50 mm. long. 



..— — ..j^..u , i,y ^y^^^ i-igui in a column ou mm. long. 

 ^ bhian turpentine as found in commerce and believed to be genuine, 

 IS a soft solid, becoming brittle by exposure to the air ; viewed in mass 

 It appears opaque and of a dull brown hue. If pressed while warm 



' Genesis xii. 6, where the word is rcu- 



duied in our version plain. 



TarZ^'^.^^^ historical information on the 



336. i^oi^'^thiere, Berlin, 1S77. 



Paris, 1809.150. Plate iii. shows the resm 

 fcrous ducts of a branch two yfi^[^ Ci 

 « Voyage into the Levant, i. (1'^*'" „ 

 6 Voy. dans UEmpire Oihoman, etc., 



(1801) '130. .. (1856) 



!" Maltass, Pharm, Joimu xvn. v 



« A solution of mastich made iu ttc sanie 



4 P^,.;„,v„ ,j„ , , ° A. solution oi masiicum"---- 



Aetwwtt du groupe ties Amuiardiac^es. proportion deviates 3" to the right 



