BUBON GALBANUM. “ORD. VI. Umbeliate. 101 
milky liquor, but does not perfectly dissolve, as some have reported, 
in water, vinegar, or wine. Rectified spirit takes up much more 
than either of these ménstria, but not the whole: the tincture is of 
a bright golden colour. _ A mixture of two parts of rectified spirit, 
and one of water, dissolves all but the impurities, which are 
ie commonly in considerable quantity.’—TIn distillation with water, 
the oil separates and rises to the surface, in colour yellowish, in 
quantity about one-twentieth of the weight of the Galbanum. 
Newman observes, that the empyreumatic oil is of a blue colour, 
which changes in the air to a purple. 
Galbanum, medicinally considered, may be said to hold a middle 
rank between Asafoetida and Ammoniacum; but its fetidness is very 
inconsiderable, especially when compared with the former, it is 
therefore accounted less antispasmodic, nor is it supposed to affect 
the bronchial glands so much as to have expectorant powers equal 
to those of the latter; it has the credit however of being more 
useful in hysterical disorders, and of promoting and correctin 
various secretions and uterine evacuations. Externally Galbanum 
: has been applied to expedite the suppuration of inflammatory and 
indolent tumours, and medically as a warm stimulating plaster. 
It is an ingredient in the pilule e gummi, the emplastrum lithargyri 
cum gummi, of the London Pharm, and in the mph ad Gann 
pedum of the Edin. : 
a a 
& Lewis’s Mat. Med. by Dr. Aikin, P. 314. 
The Galbanum colour was a prevailing fashion withthe ; ra 
Reticulumque comis auratum ingentibus implet, 
Ceerulea indutus scutulata, aut galbana rasa; Jovenar, Sat. 2, 1. 96. 
And Martial, speaking of an effeminate person, says, Galbanos hahet mores. 
Lib. 1. Epig. 97.——Commentators differ about the colour of Galbana Rasa; we 
have described the Galbanum flower to be of a greenish yellow. 
