61G COiSlFER^. 



Chemical Composition— After fhe complete desiccation of a small 

 quantity, there remained 72-4 per cent, of a brittle, transparent resin, 

 soluble in glacial acetic acid, but not entirely in absolute alcohol or in 

 acetone. By submitting half a pound of the turpentine to distillation 

 with water, we obtained 24 per cent, of essential oil, the remaining resin 

 being when cold perfectly friable. The fresh oil, purified by sodium, 

 deviates the ray of polarized light to the left, whereas the remannng 

 resin, dissolved in half its weight of benzol, shows a weak dextrogyre 

 rotation. The oil boils at 163° C. After having kept it for two years 

 and a half in a well-stopped bottle, we find that it has become 

 considerably thicker and now deviates to the right. If saturated with 

 dry hydrochloric acid, the oil does not yield a solid compound. 



This oil has nearly the same agi-eeable odour as the crude oleo-resin, 

 yet the essential oil of the cones of the same tree is still more fragrant. 

 The latter is one of the most powerfully deviating oils, the rotation 

 being 51° to the left, and it is consequently extremely different from 

 the oil obtained from the turpentine of the stem, though its composition 

 is represented by the same formula, C^^H". 



A peculiar sugar called Ahietite, nearly related to mannite but 

 having the composition C'-ff ^0", has been detected by Rochleder m 

 the leaves of the Silver Fir. 



Uses— Strassburg turpentine possesses the properties of common 

 turpentine, with the advantage of a very agreeable odour. It was 

 formerly held in great esteem, but has now become nearly forgotten. 



PIX BURGUNDICA. 



Pix ahietina; Burgundy Pitch; F. Poix cle Bourgogne on des Vosges, 



Poix jaune ; G. Fichtenhavz, Tannenharz. 



Botanical Origin— PiniLS Abies L. {xlhies excelsa DC), the Norway 

 Spruce Fir,2 a noble tree attaining an elevation of 100-lGO feet, wideO 

 distributed throughout Northern and the mountainous parts of Centra 

 Europe, but not indigenous to Great Britain, though extensively planteci^ 

 In Russian Lapland it reaches at 68° N. lat. almost the extreme limn 



of tree-vee:e 



extends 



In the Alps it ascends to 6,000 feet above the level of the sea. 



History— In accordance with the definition of the London Riar, 

 copreias and the custom of English druo-gists the name Burgundy i "^ 

 is restricted to the product of the above'-iiamed species. The P^S'^^^^S 

 legists of France use an equivalent term wuth the same limitations; d^ 

 m other parts of the Continent Pix Burgundica has a wider wf ^^"°; 



employ it in the English sense. 



Coniferce. 



Pai;kinson, an ap^othecary of London and herbarist to King Charley 



I. speaks of « Burga,iy Pitch" as a thing well known in his time.» D^ie 



i^orf 1 Vf '™«coZo(yia (1693) mentions Pix Burgundica as being ii^^ 

 ported mlo England from Germany, and it is also noticed by Salmon 



IsS 11!'' ^""^ H^i^omanu, Jahrtsherkht, "- Pe,se or Epic4a of the French ; ^idte 



or liotJUuHne of the Germans. ^ 

 =^ Theater of Plants, 1640. lo4- 



