206 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



tiquity. Theophrastus (633), 4th century B. C., men- 

 tions it, and both Dioscorides (194) and Pliny (514) 

 refer to it in connection with the island of Scio, or Chios. 

 The writer, during a journey to the Orient in 1906, 

 made a study of mastic, his description, written in 

 Smyrna, being as follows: 



HISTORY. The island of Scio, or Chio, lies in the 

 Mediterranean Sea about six hours by steamer from 

 Smyrna. It has long been celebrated, in that a pocket 

 of the northern part furnishes the world's supply of 

 mastic which is not produced by the adjacent islands, 

 notwithstanding their fertility, and their favorable 

 situation as concerns exposure and climate. 1 But that 

 the tree will thrive elsewhere, is shown by the fact that 

 a photograph taken by the writer, of a mastic tree in 

 the garden of Mr. Alfred A. Keun, near Smyrna, ex- 

 hibits the tree dripping (May 6, 1906), with the trans- 

 parent, brilliant tears. In the island of Chio, one 

 district is called Mastikohoria, meaning, "Village Pro- 

 ducing Gum Mastic," and from this district, the world 

 is supplied with its mastic. 



Mastic, like other Oriental gums, resins and balsams, 

 has been known from antiquity, Theophrastus, (4th 

 Century B. C.), Dioscorides and Pliny recording it as a 

 product of Chio. It was formerly of great importance, 

 as indicated by the following record. (See Pharmaco- 

 graphia, by Fliickiger and Hanbury). 



In the Middle Ages, the mastic of Scios was a monop- 

 oly of the Greek Emperors. The successor of Andron- 

 icus II, 1304, gave the mastic concession to a rich 

 Genoese named Benedetto Zaccarias, whose family 



1 The circumscribed areas of sections producing certain drugs, fruits and natural products, 

 is noticeable enough to warrant a special paper on the subject of such limitations in the 

 Orient. 



