26 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



(Gallesio), (255), are accepted as having introduced it 

 into Europe, first through Africa, Arabia and Syria, 

 from its original home in northern India. In that 

 country a wild orange still grows, supposedly the parent 

 of the cultivated fruit, be it sweet or bitter. The first 

 specimen of this fruit to find its way into Europe was 

 the bitter orange, cultivated in Rome in 1200 A. D., 

 the sweet orange not being introduced until the 15th 

 century, when it was imported by the Portuguese. The 

 first oranges brought into England, seven in number, 

 were imported by a Spanish ship, in 1290. An Arabian 

 physician of the 12th century, Avicenna (30), employed 

 the juice of the bitter orange in medicine. 



BALSAMUM PERUVIANUM (Balsam of Peru) 



This name was first employed in the New York edition, 1830, 

 U. S. P. The substance was mentioned in all the early editions 

 under the name Myrpxylon, until 1850, when the modern name 

 was employed. Official in att editions of U. S. P. 



This drug, obtained from the Toluifera Pereirce, 

 came to the attention of the earlier Spanish explorers 

 of South America as a substance commonly employed 

 by the natives as a remedy for wounds. It constituted 

 a part of the tribute paid by the natives to the Indian 

 chiefs of Cuscatlan, to whom it was presented in cu- 

 riously ornamented earthen jars. This reminds us of 

 the curious jars in which we observed mastich sold, on 

 the island of Scio, by the collectors. These jars, holding 

 a few ounces of the purest and clearest "tears" of mas- 

 tich, have been thus, in this unique form, an article of 

 local commerce in Scio since before the Moslem rule. 



"Peruvian Balsam," on its first importation into 

 Europe, brought enormous prices, as much as $45 an 

 ounce being paid therefor, and in Rome, 100 ducats, or 



