UMBELLIFERA. 161 
fer that the odour of silphiam wasalliaceous. Pliny says that 
is used to adultecrate laser and galbanum. We see no reason 
v ppose that the ancient Hindus knew the drag, although 
for it. The author of the Makhzan-el-Adwiya gives a sufficiently | 
accurate description of Sagbinaj, and tells us that it is obtained 
from the district of Mah, near Ispahdén. Persian brokers in 
in the country between Shiraz and Kirmén. It is necessary 
to remark that Persian Sagapenum is distinctly different from 
what is known as Levant Sagapenum. Mahometan physi- 
cians consider Sagapenum to be attenuant and resolvent; 
when combined with purgatives it is thought to exert its 
solvent power upon every part of the system, removin 
noxious humours; they also value it as an anthelmintic and 
emmenagogue. For a full account of the diseases in which 
it is prescribed, we must refer the reader to the Makhzan-el- 
Adwiya, article Sagbinaj. A sagapenum pill is often pre- 
scribed in flatulent dyspepsia; it contains equal parts of Aloes, 
Sagapenum, Bdellium and Agaric. Two to three dirhems 
are to be taken with warm water. 
_ Description.—Sagapenum generally arrives in 1 Bombay 
in masses weighing from four to ten pounds, tied up in coarse 
cloth, but occasionally parcels consisting of fine, dry, separate 
tears are seen. 
The masses are made up principally of tears, which being 
ixed with a proportion of soft gum-resin, adhere together, 
_ forming a brownish-yellow cake ; when fresh some of the tears 
havea greenish tinge, and are more or less opaque, but by 
ooh they all become brownish-yellow and translucent. 
The dry tears are always of a brownish-yellow. 
‘The odour is distinctly alliaceous, but in other rome is 
much like that of Persian Galbanum 
Chemical composition.—Persian oe and 
 Galbanum closely resemble each othe and the 
said of Levant Sopagenum pil tG 
IL.—21 
