212 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



Dissolve the sugar and acid in the water, and stir in 

 the white of egg. Boil, skimming occasionally, until 

 the thick syrup will retain its form when dropped on a 

 piece of cold marble, or when a small amount is poured 

 into cold water. Remove from the fire, cool in a capa- 

 cious vessel, and then stir in the powdered mastic. In 

 this connection, it may be stated that an item of great 

 interest to me was the numberless forms of sweets and 

 cakes consumed by Oriental people. 



The use of mastic in medicine followed its empirical 

 employment as a breath sweetener, (for which purpose 

 it is sold in all Oriental bazaars), and as a flavor for 

 cordials and other drinks. Perhaps the first record of 

 its authoritative employment in medicine is about the 

 13th century, by the Welsh "Meddygon Myddfai," 

 (507), as an ingredient of ointments. 



MATICO (Matico) 

 Official from 1860 to 1900. Dropped in 1910., 



Matico, Piper angustifolium, is a shrub native to 

 Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, and other South 

 American countries. Its qualities are said to have been 

 discovered by a Spanish soldier named Matico, the 

 legend being that he applied some of the leaves to a 

 wound, and observed that the bleeding was thereby 

 stopped. This legend, current in South America, gave 

 to the shrub the name soldier's herb, or tree. (See Hy- 

 oscyamus). It is probable, however, that its native use 

 was learned from the Indians. In the beginning of the 

 19th century matico came to the profession of medicine 

 in North America and in Europe, being conspicuously 

 introduced by Jeffreys (340), a physician of Liverpool, 

 who commended it, 1839, as a styptic and astringent. 



