Chap. 22.] HOW THICK PITCH IS PREPARED. 361 



CHAP. 21. (11.) METHODS OF MAKING TAP HOW CEDRIUM IS 



MADE. 



In Europe, tar is extracted from the torch-tree 33 by the 

 agency of fire ; it is employed for coating ships and for many 

 other useful purposes. 36 The wood of the tree is chopped"" 

 into small billets, and then put into a furnace, which is heated 

 by fires lighted on every side. The first steam that exudes 

 flows in the form of water into a reservoir made for its recep- 

 tion : in Syria this substance is known as "cedrium;" 38 and 

 it possesses such remarkable strength, that in Egypt the bodies 

 of the dead, after being steeped in it, are preserved from all 

 corruption. 39 



CHAP. 22. METHODS BY WHICH THICK PITCH IS PREPARED. 



The liquid that follows is of a thicker consistency, and con- 

 stitutes pitch, properly so called. This liquid, thrown again 

 into a brazen cauldron, and mixed with vinegar, becomes still 40 

 thicker, and when left to coagulate, receives the name of 

 " Bruttian" 41 pitch. It is used, however, only for pitching the 

 insides of dolia 42 and other vessels, it differing from the other 

 kinds in being more viscous, of a redder colour, and more 

 unctuous than is usually the case. All these varieties of pitch 

 are prepared from the pitch-tree, by putting red-hot stones, 

 with the resinous wood, in troughs made of strong oak ; or 

 if these troughs are not attainable, by piling up billets of the 



35 Numerous varieties of the coniferae supply us with tar, aud Pliny is 

 in error in deriving it solely from the torch-tree, the Pinus mugho of Lin- 

 naeus. 36 See B. xxiv. c. 23. 



37 It is still ohtained in a similar way. 



38 Fee remarks, that Pliny is in error here ; this red, watery fluid formed 

 in the extraction of tars, being quite a different thing from " cedvium," the 

 alkitran or kit ran of the Arabs ; which is not improbably made from a 

 cedar, or perhaps the Juniperus Phcenicea, called "Cedrus" by the two 

 Bauhins and Tournefort. He says that it is not likely that the Egyptians 

 would use this red substance for the purpose of preserving the dead, charged 

 as it is with empyreumatic oil, and destitute of all properties peculiar to 

 resins. 39 See B. xxi. c. 3, and B. xxiv. c. 23.. 



40 This is impracticable ; neither vinegar, wine, nor water, will mingle 

 with pitch. These resins, however, if stirred up briskly in hot water, be- 

 come of a paler colour, and acquire an additional suppleness. 



41 Perhaps so called from Calabria, a country where the pine abounded, 

 and part of which was called Bruttium, 



42 Or wine-vats. 



