PHARMACOPCGIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS. 
pods of the musk-deer, indicating its abundance at that date. The use 
of musk as a perfume antedates European record, whilst its introduc- 
tion as a stimulant has no record of its origin. This writer learned 
during his services in prescription pharmacies that when tincture of 
musk was prescribed, the patient was expected to die. 
MYRISTICA 
The tree yielding nutmeg, Myristica fragrans, is native to New 
Guinea and islands of the Malay Archipelago, from whence it has 
been introduced to Sumatra, Brazil, the West Indies, and other coun- 
tries favorable to its cultivation. It has been asserted that the nutmeg 
was not known to the ancients, but von Martius (409), Flora Brasili- 
ensis, 1860, contends that it was mentioned in the “Comedies of 
Plautus,” about two centuries B. C. The nutmeg has been an article 
of import and export from Aden since the middle of the twelfth cen- 
tury, and by the end of that century both nutmeg and mace had 
reached Northern Europe. This spice came naturally into domestic 
culinary use, it being classed with mace, cloves, calamus, etc. Its 
use in legalized medicine, also, has been chiefly in the direction of a 
flavor to other substances, and followed similar empirical preparations. 
MYRRHA 
Myrrh, a gum-resin from Commiphora myrrha, has been a con- 
stituent of incense, perfume, and such, in ceremonial religious life, as 
well as an article employed by the common people from the days of 
the most remote antiquity. It was one of the rare and precious gum- 
resins in the days of the Bible, being mentioned in connection with 
such substances as frankincense and olibanum. That it was highly 
valued in the days of Solomon is evident from the fact that it is men- 
tioned conspicuously in connection with the gifts brought by the 
Queen of Sheba to that monarch. It is yet obtained from Arabia, the 
present writer finding it in the bazaars of Aden (and adjacent Arab 
bazaars), a city that had an existence as a port of export for Oriental 
products in very early days. Theophrastus (633), Pliny (514), and 
other early writers mention this drug, which from all times has been 
valued in domestic medicine for its aromatic qualities, and as a constitu- 
ent of incense in religious ceremonies. In Herodotus (Macaulay, 
Book II, p. 153) it is named as one of the substances used by the Egyp- 
tians in embalming the dead. 
“First with a crooked iron they draw out the brains through the nostrils, 
extracting it partly thus and partly by pouring in drugs; and after this with 
a sharp stone of Ethiopia they make a cut along the side and take out the 
whole contents of the belly, and when they have cleared out the cavity and 
cleansed it with palm-wine they cleanse it again with spices pounded up; then 
they fill the belly with pure myrrh pounded up and with cassia and other spices 
except frankincense, and sew it together again.” 
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