DRUGS. 



Remarks. The Balm of Scripture. The /3a\cra/>ioi/ of Theophrastus and 

 Dioscorides, called also Opobalsamum. The wood Xylobalsamum, and 

 fruit Carpobalsamum, are also described by the ancients, and sold to the 

 present day in Bombay. Pliny, Diodorus, and ancient authors generally, 

 considered Judaea the native country solely of the balm trees, but we now 

 know that they are found in Arabia. They would appear to have been 

 confined to gardens in Judaea, and the vineyards of En-geddi are supposed 

 to have been balsam groves. Diodorus gives En-geddi and the Dead Sea 

 shore as the habitat of the trees. Calmet states that the Arabians have a 

 tradition that the Queen of Sheba introduced them there on her visit to 

 Solomon. They were an offering which must have been prized, for cen- 

 turies later Pliny informs us that the Emperors Vespasian and Titus had 

 the shrubs exhibited in Rome, and that the Romans were in the habit of 

 carrying them in their triumphal processions ; and also that Alexander the 

 Great, when in Judaea, thought it a fair midsummer day's work to fill a 

 concha (from *0412 to *1238 of a pint) with Opobalsamum. Calmet 

 derives the word Balsam from Baal-shemen, Royal Oil. The oleo-resin 

 of Abies balsamea, the Canada Balsam Fir, has been substituted in 

 commerce for true Balm of Gilead, and the little labiate of the Canaries 

 Cedronella triphylla (Monch), goes by that name, and Melissa officinalis by 

 that of Common Balm vulgarly. Opobalsamum was extravagantly prized 

 as a panacea by the ancients, and the British Museum possesses a stamp of 

 Herophilus the founder of the Alexandrian School for his Opobalsamum 

 salve. It represents a figure of Roma seated, with a head in the left hand, 

 all on Sard. See also " Gums and Resins." 



Balsamodendron roxburghii. Am. 



Linn, Syst. Octandria Monogynia. 



The gum resin, Indian Bdellium. 



Vernacular. Gooaul, Beng. and By. Kookul, Tarn. Mukul, Arabia 

 and Persia. Roghen toorb, Aflatoon, Pers. Moolie-ke-teil a 

 Hindee synonyme in the Ulfas Udwiyeh. In the same work 

 Budleeyoon is given as the Syrian name. 



Habitat. Northern India, Silhet, Assam, Sindh, Deccan? 



Remarks. Generally thought to be the Bdellium (Bdolach) of Gen, 

 ii. v. 1 2, and Num. xi. v. 1 7, and the /38e'XXiov and fMafcXubv vel p,ada\Kov 

 of Dioscorides. Lassen however has suggested that Bdolach means Musk 

 and not Bdellium, and it is difficult to resist his conclusion based as it is 

 not only on the description given of Bdolach in Numbers, but also on its 

 affinity to the Sanscrit word Madalaka, which is thought to mean Musk. 

 In Genesis the word occurs in the passage " there (that is in the land of 

 Havilath, compassed by the river Pishon) is bdellium and the onyx 

 stone." The Pishon being considered by commentators to be the Indus, 

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