Illl 



EAGLE-WOOD. 



EAK. 



4.10 



Of the two kinds of Agallochum which are most valued, and both 

 considered genuine, one is distinguished by the name of Calambac, 

 and the other as the Garo of Malacca. 



The first, called Calambac, and Agallochum Primarium by Rum- 

 phius, appears, as far as hitherto known, to be a native of Cochin- 

 China only, growing on the mountains of that country in about 13 N. 

 lat., near the great river Lavum, which may be the Meikeng flowing 

 between Cochin-China and the Laos. This tree was named A loexy- 

 lum of/allochum by Loureiro, 'FL Cochin-Chinensis," p. 327, and placed 

 by him in Decandna Monoyynia, and described as a lofty tree with 

 erect stem and branches, long lanceolate shining leaves, terminal 

 bunches of flowers, with a woody falcate 1-seeded pod for its fruit, 

 whence it ia referred by De Candolle to the natural family of Legumi- 

 notte. Loureiro states that the wood of this tree is white and 

 inodorous, and that its fragrance is the result of disease, when the 

 oily portions thicken into resin iu the central parts of the tree, and 

 that no part of the tree is milky or poisonous, but that paper is 

 made from its bark in Cochin-China, as in Japan from that of the 

 mulberry. 



The next kind of Agallochum is that commonly called Garos, and 

 to which the name of Eagle-Wood is more frequently applied, and 

 which has long been an article of export from Malacca and the king- 

 dom of Siam. Specimens of the tree which yields this were first 

 obtained by M. Sonnerat in his second voyage to India, from which 

 probably have been given the figure and description by Lamarck. 

 (' Enc. Mc'th.,' 1. p. 49, Illustr. t. 376.) The plant he named Aquilaria 

 Malacccnti*. This, the Garo de Malacca, was introduced by Dr. 

 Roxburgh into the botanic garden of Calcutta, and was not to be 

 distinguished from specimens of a tree called Ugoon, which is a 

 native of the mountainous tracts east and south-east from Silhet, 

 between 24 and 25 of N. lat., which flowers in April, and ripens its 

 seed in August, and whjch he says there can be little or no doubt 

 furnishes the real Calambac or Agallochum of the ancients ; adding, 

 that there seems more reason to think that it was carried to China 

 from our eastern frontier, than to suppose'.it was carried from Cochin- 

 China, or any other country iu the vicinity of China, where it has 

 always been in great demand. Small quantities are sometimes 

 imported into Calcutta by sea, from the eastward ; but such is always 

 deemed inferior to that of Silhet. (' Fl. Ind.' ii. p. 423.) As the 

 Malacca plant had not flowered, Dr. Roxburgh was unable to decide 

 that they were positively the same with those from Silhet, and there- 

 fore named these Ar/aUaria ayallocha, as another species of the same 

 genus. By this name it has been figured in Royle's ' Illustr.' i. 36, f. 1, 

 from a drawing by Dr. Hamilton of a plant which he called Agallo- 

 chum Officinarum, and which he found near Goalpara, on the eastern 

 frontier of Bengal. This drawing is illustrated with dissections by 

 Dr. Lindley. [AquiLARiACEiE.] 



The fragrant nature of genuine Agila or Eagle-Wood is well known, 

 and that it has from very early periods been employed both by 

 the natives of India and of China as incense. Mr. Finlayson, in his 

 visit to Siam, says that the consumption of this highly odoriferous 

 wood is very considerable in Siam, but that the greatest part is 

 exported to China, where it is used in a very economical manner. 

 The wood being reduced to a fine powder, and mixed with a 

 gummy substance, is laid over a small slip of wood, about the size of 

 a bull-rush, so as to form a pretty thick coating. This is lighted, and 

 gives out a feeble but grateful perfume. French authors inform us 

 that the Ka^lu-Wood was burned as a perfume by Napoleon in the 

 imperial palace. 



W cannot conclude this subject without inquiring whether the 

 substances of which we have been treating are the Lign-Aloes of 

 Scripture, Ahaloth, masc. Ahel, whose plural is Ahalim. It would 

 be impossible to do justice to the subject in a small compass, or with- 

 out referring to the numerous dissertations which have been written 

 on it ; but it may be observed, that these might have been much 

 shortened, if the authors had been naturalists, or intimately acquainted 

 with the natural history and usages of eastern countries. Such infor- 

 mation would at least have prevented any species of aloe being con- 

 sidered or figured as the far-famed and fragrant Lign-Aloe from a 

 mere similarity in sound. In the present instance, the difficulty is 

 increased by the supposed necessity of reconciling the different 

 passages in which Lign-Aloes are mentioned, as in Numbers, xxiv. 6, 

 where it is mentioned as a tree planted ; but in the three other passages, 

 Proverbs, vii. 17, Psalms, xiv. 9, and Canticles, iv. 14, it is enumerated 

 with the most fragrant products of the east, as cinnamon, cassia, cala- 

 mus, camphor, frankincense, myrrh, spikenard, and saffron. Here we 

 may observe, that a substance which was indigenous in a country wan 

 nut likely to have been an article also of commerce from a far country 

 in those early times ; and that therefore, as it is disputed whether the 

 word shall be translated Tents or Lign-Aloes, the word may perhaps 

 be used in a poetical sense, as it is thought to be by some commen- 

 tators. In the three passages above referred to, it may be noted 

 that, except sandal-wood, there is no other substance which could be so 

 well enumerated with those with which it is found in connection as 

 \;;il;i- Wood ( ,f the East, whether we consider its high price, 

 ' |Tf'unii', or the long time in which it has been held in 

 high estimation, while the similarity of its name is at the same time 



NAT. in.sr. mv. VOL. it. 



EAR. Many animals unquestionably enjoy the faculty of hearing 

 to a limited extent, which are found, upon examination, to be unpro- 

 vided with organs exclusively appropriated to the concentration and 

 transmission of sound. In fact, the sense of hearing is, strictly 

 speaking, only a refinement of the sense of touch. The impressions 

 with which it is conversant arise wholly [ACOUSTICS, in ARTS AND Sc. 

 Div.] from peculiar undulations of the particles of ordinary matter, 

 propagated in obedience to its ordinary laws through the medium 

 in which the animal lives, and impinging more or less immediately 

 upon a sensitive part ; they have no necessary dependence, like those 

 of sight, upon the agency of the more subtle fluids ; nor have they 

 any connection, like those of smell and taste, with what may be called 

 the chemical properties of matter. If to these considerations it be 

 added that the vibratile substances which are commonly found to 

 inclose the sensorium are not ill qualified to participate in the undu- 

 lations of the surrounding medium, and carry them onwards to the 

 internal seat of perception, the reader will be prepared to learn that 

 the only essential part of the organ of hearing is a nerve, not 

 materially different from those of common sensation, lodged at a 

 sufficient depth to be secured from external injury, and sufficiently 

 sensitive to be affected by these delicate impulses. This is called the 

 acoustic or auditory nerve. 



It is probable that even the lowest animals provided with a 

 nervous system are able to perceive the notices thus conveyed of 

 external objects, and turn them to account in the degree necessary 

 for their security and comfort. But to meet the increasing wants 

 and minister to the multiplied faculties of the more complete animals, 

 various subsidiary parts are found to be added in something like a 

 regular succession as we advance upwards in the scale, each lower 

 grade possessing the rudiments of some additional provision more 

 fully developed in the next above, till the organ reaches its greatest 

 amplification and final perfection in man and the other Mammalia. 

 The particular use of many of these subsidiary parts has not yet 

 been explained. We know in general that they must increase the 

 forcajmd vividness of the impression ; that they afford indications of 

 its direction, and the means of appreciating minute shades of 

 difference in its kind and degree, and in the frequency of its repe- 

 tition ; that some of them add to the security of the organ without 

 impairing its delicacy ; and that others serve to adjust its position, 

 and to adapt it to various changes in the state of the atmosphere. 



The Radiata (Sponges, Polyps, &c.), which constitute the lowest, 

 and in point of variety and number by far the most comprehensive 

 division of Cuvier, appear to be universally unprovided with an 

 organ of hearing ; many of them have no nervous system, and are 

 therefore probably altogether devoid of the sense. In some of the 

 A calepha are bodies very like the otolithes found in the higher animals, 

 but whether these are the commencement of an ear or not is doubtful. 



The Articulata, which form the next division, are all furnished 

 with a nervous system, and it is likely that they all enjoy the sense 

 of hearing. Indeed, some of them are able to express their feelings 

 and wants to their fellows by means of peculiar sounds, of which the 

 cricket and queen-bee are well-known examples. We find accord- 

 ingly, that in many of the more perfect species the extremity of the 

 acoustic nerve is expanded upon a simple kind of auditory instrument 

 consisting of a whitish membranous bag of fluid, placed within the 

 head in a somewhat larger cavity, the space between them being 

 also occupied by fluid. This cavity is situated near the outer feelers, 

 or antennae. When the animal lives in water, it is commonly 

 complete; if in air, there is a round external opening closed by a 

 thin tense and transparent membrane, showing the white colour 

 within, to which the bag adheres, and which receives, concentrates, 

 and transmits the sonorous vibrations of the surrounding medium. 

 This kind of arrangement seems to be necessary, among other reasons, 

 for the purpose of indicating the direction of the sound, which is 

 probably made known in part by the clearer vibration of the 

 membrane when turned in that direction, and in part by a comparison 

 of the impressions on the two sides ; for this organ, like all others 

 which bring the animal into relation with the outer world, is always 

 double and symmetrical. It may be observed that the nerve dis- 

 tributed to the membranous bag just described is given on by that 

 which supplies the antenna with its exquisite sense of touch : some 

 have thought, but perhaps erroneously, that the faculty of hearing 

 resides in the antenna) themselves. 



The parts we have enumerated arc all found, with others, in the 

 higher animals, and may be considered as the most essential parts 

 of an organ of distinct hearing. The cavity is called the vestibule ; 

 the soft membranous bag of fluid is the vestibular sac ; the round 

 external opening is called, from its shape in man and most other 

 animals, the fenestra ovalis ; the fluids within and without the sac 

 are called respectively the endo-lymph and peri-lymph (fvSov, within, 

 wepl, around) ; the latter, being analogous to the fluid discovered by 

 Cotugno in the internal ear of Mammalia, is sometimes called, after 

 his name, the Liquor Cotunni. 



The principal tribes of the Articulata ascertained to possess organs 

 of this kind are the air-breathing insects of the orders ffymenoptera 

 (Bees), Orthoptcra (Grasshoppers), and Coleoptera (Beetles); the 

 Arac/mida (Spiders), and the Decapodous Crustacea, such as the 

 Lobster and Crab. In the common black beetle they are v<*ry 



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