PHARMACOPGIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
and jalap. Its domestic use in America came through European home 
medication. 
Professor Fliickiger (see Preface) arranged with this writer to 
give unitedly the record of the American drugs and plants. One sub- 
stance considered was “American Manna,” the article being printed 
in the Am. Journ. Pharm., 1897, pp. I to Io. 
MARRUBIUM 
Horehound, Marrubium vulgare, is indigenous to Europe, but 
has been naturalized in America, where it is now very common. Its 
use as a bitter decoction led to its early introduction into domestic 
medicine, as well as to its popular use as a bitter flavor in candy. Prob- 
ably the well-known horehound candy may be cited as a domestic 
medicine that has become popular as a confection. The date of the 
use of horehound as a sweetened domestic tea must have been very 
early in the records of European home medication. 
MASTICHE 
Mastic, Pistacia lentiscus, is an evergreen shrub, native to the 
Mediterranean shores, from Syria to Spain, being found also on the 
adjacent islands as far as the Canaries. The collection of mastic, 
however, is localized to the northern part of the Island of Scio, where 
from all time the tree has been known, exuding most abundantly the 
resinous tar that, when dried, is known as mastic. The origin of its 
use is lost in antiquity. Theophrastus (633), fourth century B. C., 
mentions it, and both Dioscorides (194) and Pliny (514) refer to it, 
in connection with the Island of Scio, or Chios. The writer of this 
article made a study of mastic during a journey to the Orient, but 
as yet has not published the paper. By distiliation with alcohol, mastic 
produces a drink, this also being described in the paper in preparation, 
the drink being probably of great antiquity, and known to the Greeks 
and Romans. The use of mastic in medicine followed its empirical 
employment as a breath sweetener (it being sold in all Oriental bazaars 
for this purpose) and as a flavor for cordials and other drinks. Per- 
haps the first record of its authoritative employment in medicine is 
about the thirteenth century, by the Welsh “Meddygon Myddfai” 
(507) (see Note, p. 1), as an ingredient of ointments. 
MATICO 
Matico, Piper angustifolium, is a shrub native to Bolivia, Peru, 
Brazil, Venezuela, and other South American countries. Its qualities 
are said to have been discovered by a Spanish soldier named Matico, 
the legend being that he applied some of the leaves to a wound, and 
observed that the bleeding was thereby stopped. This legend, current 
in South America, gave to the shrub the name soldier’s herb, or tree. 
(See Stramonium.) It is probable, however, that he learned of its 
native use by the Indians. In the beginning of the nineteenth century 
matico came to the attention of the profession of medicine in North 
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