CAMPHORA 39 



CAMPHORA (Camphor) 

 Recorded in all editions of the Pharmacopeia, 1820-1910. 



Camphor (from Cinnamomum Camphora) has been 

 made in China since the earliest record. Marco Polo 

 (518), who visited that country in the thirteenth cen- 

 tury, saw many of the trees producing it. Camphor 

 was known to the Chinese writers of the sixth century, 

 as well as were the qualities of the tree as a valuable 

 timber. The earliest mention of camphor occurs in 

 one of the most ancient poems of the Arabic language, 

 by Imru-1-Kais, who lived in the beginning of the sixth 

 century. That camphor was well known to Arabian 

 writers, is shown by the following sentence from Bur- 

 ton's Translation of the Arabian Nights: 



"I am kinsman to King Hassum, Lord of the Land of 

 Camphor; and when his ships shall make fast to the 

 shore." 



The exaggeration of this island's camphor value is 

 shown by the following: 



"On the morrow we set out and journeyed over the 

 mighty range of mountains, seeing many serpents in 

 the valley, till we came to a fair great island, wherein 

 was a garden of huge camphor trees." 1 Sindbad the 

 Sailor, Vol. XI: p. 20. 



That camphor was highly valued by the Arabians is 

 shown by the following sentence, in which mention is 

 made of it as the only material linked with ambergris: 



"... each holding in hand a huge cierge scented with 

 camphor and ambergris and set in a candlestick of gem- 

 studded gold." Alcedin and the Wonderful Lamp, 

 Vol. XIII: p. 147. 



1 In a footnote Burton says," Sindbad correctly describes the primitive way of extracting 

 camphor, a drug unknown to the Greeks and Romans, introduced by the Arabs." 



