PIX BURGUNDICA. 



617 



(1G93), who says " it is brought to us out of Burgundy, Germany and 

 other places near Strasburgh."^ 



Pomet, writing in Paris about the same period, discards the prefix 

 Bargimdy a^s a fiction, remarking that the best Poix grasse comes from 

 Holland and Strassburg.- 



Whether this resin ever was collected in Burgundy we are unable to 

 determine. It may probably have acquired the name through having 

 been brought into commerce from Switzerland and Alsace by way of 

 Franche Comt^, otherwise called Comt^ de 



Bourgogne.^ 



Bourgogne 



or Haute 



Burgundy pitch is enumerated among the materia medica of the 

 London Pharmacopoeia of 1677; and in every subsequent edition. In 

 that of 1809 it was defined under the name of Fix arida, as the pre- 

 pared resin of Finns Abies, 



Production — Burgundy pitch is produced in Finland, in the Black 

 Forest in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Austria and Switzerland, On 

 the estate of Baron Linder at Svarta near Helsingfors, it is obtained by 

 melting the crude resin in contact with the vapour of water, and 

 ■straining. The quantity annually produced there was stated in 1867 

 to he 35,000 kilogr. (G89 cwt.);' that afforded by an establishment at 

 Hm in the same country amounted to 80,000 kilogr. (1,575 cwt.).^ 



In the neighbourhood of Oppenau and on the Kniebis mountain in 

 the Grand Duchy of Baden the stems of the firs are wounded at equal 

 distances by making perpendicular channels, 1^ inches wide and the 

 same in depth. The resin which exudes from these channels is scraped 

 off with an iron instrument made for the purpose, and purified by being 

 melted in hot water and strained. This is performed in three or 

 four small establishments at Oppenau and the neighbouring village of 

 Locherberg. In this state the resin, which is opaque and contains much 

 moisture, is called Wasserliarz. By fmiher training and evaporating 

 a portion of the water its quality is improved. 



The manufacture in that part of Germany is on the decline, partly in 

 consequence of the timber being injured by the wounding of the trees, 

 so that the collecting of resin is not permitted in the large forests 

 belonging to the governments of Baden and Wlirtemberg. We have 

 had the opportunity of observing*^ that in the establishments in question 

 French turpentine or galipot, imported from Bordeaux, as well as 

 American rosin or colophony, are used in quantities certainly exceedmg 

 that of the resin grown on the spot. 



In the middle of the last century some Burgundy pitch was pro- 

 ^'i^ced, accordino- to Duhamel,^ in the present canton of Neuchatel, but 



«3 



no such branch of industry is now pursued there, at least on a large 

 scale. On the other hand, in the districts of Moutier and Del(?mont in 

 the Bernese Jura this resin is still collected, though it is not known as 

 burgundy Pitch, but is termed simply Foix Uanche (White Pitch). 



\ Complrat Ewjllsh Physician, 1G93. 1031. 

 2^-- "^- ^^«« J^rorjnes, Paris, 1G94. part i. 



Ilrftftl*''^^"'''^"^ in Ilia Stirplum Scia^jmphia 

 u)(jb) remarks that he had seen tlie Fesse 



,i:y ^-1 i^ S^-cat plenty "In Burgun- 



'^'^ moniihus," yet makes no particular 

 «ll«3ion to its yielding resin. 



^ Phai-m. Journ. ix. (1S7G) 164; also in 

 Ilanbury's Science Papers, pp. 46 to 53. 

 6 OesterreicMscherAusstellu)if/s-Berichl, x. 



(Wien, ISGS) 471. 

 ^ I spent several days in the localities in 



1873. -F. A. F. 

 r Traitc des Arbrcs, etc. i. (1775) 12. 



