344 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
p- 414; and Hanbury, who has described this camphor (‘ Science 
Papers,’ p. 394), mentions that a crude form of the drug is pre- 
pared in Burmah. 
The properties of Ngai camphor are referred to in ‘ Neues 
Repert. fiir Pharmacie, xxii. p. 325, and the observations of 
Plowman on this subject * are hereafter abstracted. | 
In the crude state this camphor appears in the form of greyish- 
white crystalline grains intermixed with fragments of vegetable 
tissue. By sublimation it crystallizes in the same brilliant distinct 
form as Borneo camphor; it has the same chemical composition, 
odour, and density as the latter, being rather heavier than water and 
not volatilizing quite so quickly as common camphor. Ngai cam- 
phor does not appear to come into the European markets at all. 
In China it is used medicinally and in the preparation of some of 
the finer kinds of ‘‘ Chinese ink,” to which it imparts the peculiar 
perfume thought by some to resemble patchouli and ambergris. 
It is probable that camphors are obtained from two or three species 
of Blumea in Burmah, as there is a variety called Bang Phien, also 
used in the manufacture of scented ink, which forms crystalline 
masses saturated with a greenish oil, and has a still more powerful 
odour than ordinary Ngai; or possibly a Ngai may be obtained 
from some other plant which is not a Blumea at all, the native 
character for the word Ngai being used to designate several plants 
including both Labiatz and Composite +. 
The chemistry of this camphor has been studied by Plowman {, 
who found it to be isomeric with Borneo camphor, that is to say, 
possessing the same elements in the same centesimal proportions, 
the same number of atoms in the molecule and the same chemical 
constitution, byt much more volatile, perceptibly different in odour, 
and of somewhat greater hardness and brittleness. Under the 
microscope the Borneo and Ngai camphor crystals were found to 
resemble each other in a remarkable degree, so as to render it 
impossible to give any characters by which they could be distin- 
guished one from the other. They were principally of the pyra- 
midal form with a varying number of sides, generally truncated, 
but sometimes perfect, then appearing as the halves of octahedra, 
while a few seemed to belong to the doubly oblique prismatic 
system. The same observer remarks that the sublimate of laurel 
* Pharm. Journ. [3] iv. pp. 710, 712. 
+ Ibid. iv. p. 709. + Ibid. p. 710, 
