g08 BURSERACEZ:. 
_ agreeable fragrance, with an aromatic bitter and acrid taste. 
Water disintegrates it, forming a light brown emulsion which, 
viewed under the microscope, appears made up of colourless 
drops, among which are granules of yellow resin. Alcohol 
dissolves the resin of Myrrh, leaving angular non-crystalline 
particles of gum and fragments of bark. (Pharmacographia.) 
Chemical composition—Fliickiger and Hanbury say:—‘“ The 
gum which is dissolved when Myrrh is treated with water 
amounts to between 40 to 50 per cent. It is partially precipi- 
table by neutral acetate of lead, showing that it differs from gum 
Arabic; but a portion (about one-fourth) agrees with the latter 
in respect to its action on acetate of lead. The resin dissolves 
completely in chloroform or alcohol, and the colour of the latter 
solution is but slightly darkened by perchloride of iron.* It 
is but partially soluble in alkalis or in bisulphide of carbon. 
Brickner (1867) found this portion to yield 75°6 per cent. of 
carbon and 95 of hydrogen. The resin which the bisulphide 
refuses to dissolve is freely soluble in ether. It contains only 
O74 per cent. of carbon. The resin of Myrrh to which when 
moistened with alcohol a small quantity of hydrochloric acid is 
added, assumes a violet hue, but far less brilliant than that dis- 
played by resin of Galbanum when treated inasimilar manuer. . 
Myrrh yields on distillation a volatile oil, which in operating 
on 25 lbs. of the drug, we obtained to the extent of } per 
cent.t It is a yellowish, rather viscid liquid, neutral to 
_ litmus, having a powerful odour of Myrrh and gp. gr. 0-988 at 
13°C. Ina column 50 mm. long, it deviates a ray of light 
30°1° to the left, By submitting it to distillation, we obtained 
before the oil boiled, a few drops of strongly acid liquid haying 
the smell of formic acid. Neutralized with ammonia, this 
liquid produced in solution of mercurous nitrate a whitish 
precipitate, which speedily: darkened, thus indicating formic 
acid, which is developed in the oil. Qld Myrrh is in fact said 
‘ 4 
st samples to yield as much as 27 
__ * The proportion of resin in Myrrh is variable, Flickiger has found the 
‘Diatifled on a large seale, good Myrrh yields as much as 4-4 per cent- 
