252 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
1:145, according to the proportionate amounts of the bodies which 
constitute it. It is of a dark brown colour and thick consistence, 
somewhat like treacle, but not so sticky, and when pure it does 
not drop with the thread-hke attenuated drops observable with 
treacle. In the bulk it appears to be black, but pressed into a 
thin film between two plates of glass it appears to be of a dark 
orange-brown and quite transparent. 
It possesses a smoky balsamic odour, which becomes very 
agreeable when dropped on paper and warmed. Its fragrance is 
increased and somewhat changed when dropped on a red-hot 
coal, by reason of the decomposition of the inodorous resin it 
contains. | 
After long exposure to the air it remains unaltered and does not 
deposit crystals. It is insoluble in water, but yields up to it a 
small quantity of cinnamic acid and a trace of benzoic acid. Six 
or eight parts of crystallized carbonate of sodium are required to 
neutralize 100 parts of the balsam. It is only slightly soluble in 
dilute alcohol, benzene, ether, essential or fixed oils, and quite 
soluble in petroleum ether. It dissolves easily in cold acetic 
acid, anhydrous acetone, absolute alcohol, and chloroform. The 
peculiarity of the process employed in the preparation of Balsam 
Peru accounts for its containing substances which are not found 
in the Balsam of Tolu, which is extracted in a more natural way 
from Myrozylon Toluifera ; the result being that these two drugs 
possess very different properties although produced by trees so 
very nearly akin that Professor Baillon * considered them speci- 
fically identical. 
Pure balsam Peru does not diminish in volume when shaken 
with an equal bulk of water. Three parts of balsam mix easily 
with one part of carbon disulphide, but further addition of this 
last causes a brown flocculent precipitate of resin. When thrice 
its weight of carbon disulphide is added, a black coherent mass of 
resin is precipitated, amounting’ sometimes to 38 per cent. of the 
balsam, and attaches itself firmly to the glass. The carbon 
solution then appears as a perfectly transparent, slightly brown 
liquid which, when decanted and evaporated, leaves a brown thick 
aromatic liquid having asp. gr. of 1:1; this is cinnamein (or benzyl 
* “Sur les caractéres spécifiques des Toluifera,” Bull. de la Soc, Linn. de 
Paris, 1874, p. 7, also Rép. de Pharm. n. s. i. p. 566. 
