282 FLORA HOMCOPATHICA. 
GroGRAPHIcAL DistrisuTioN.—The Guaiacum tree is a 
native of the West India islands, but especially of Jamaica, St. 
Domingo, and St. Thomas, and the warmer parts of the con- 
tinent of America. 
Parts usED IN MepicingE, AND Mopr oF PREPARATION.— 
The Gum-resin, which is obtained from the wood of the tree. 
The process usually followed in procuring this is, in heating billets 
several feet long, which have been previously perforated from end 
to end, and collecting the resin which slowly flows out from the 
depending extremity. Guaiac is imported in irregular lumps 
of various sizes. It often contains chips of wood. Its surface 
is brownish-red, or brownish-yellow when recent, but becomes 
greenish under exposure to light. It is brittlé, presents a 
splintery, vitreous fracture, and possesses some translucency. 
Its powder, at first greyish, gradually acquires a greenish tint. 
It emits a somewhat basalmic odour while triturated, and has a 
faintly-bitter, sweetish taste, followed by a pricking in the back 
of the throat, which is very strong and unpleasant if it be tasted 
in powder. 
The wood commonly called Lignum-vite is largely imported 
into this country from St. Domingo, for making block-sheaves, 
wooden pulleys, and many other objects, for which it is peculiarly 
fitted by its extraordinary hardness and toughness. It is re- 
markably tough and dense in its texture, and quickly sinks in 
water. It consists of a broad grey and yellow alburnum, and a 
dark, dirty greyish-green, or greenish-black duramen, the 
latter of which is the denser and heavier of the two. The 
Guaiac wood of the chemist consists of the shavings and turn- 
ings from the workshops of the turners. It has an acrid, 
aromatic taste, attended with a singular pricking in the throat, 
which is excited most strongly by the alburnum. It is scarcely 
subject to adulteration. It is known to be genuine by its sink- 
ing in water; by the chips being a mixture of yellowish and 
greenish shreds, and by its peculiar taste. 
Dr. Hancock considers that the whole medicinal property of 
