LIQUID STORAX. 133 



Although we possess no modern account of the collection of is&7. 

 solid Storax, confirmatory of that given by Dioscorides, other Collection 

 than those I have quoted (which do not, however, relate to of storax - 

 collecting the drug for the purposes of commerce), there exist 

 two remarkable statements of the method of collecting Liquid 

 Storax, which it will not be unprofitable to examine with some 

 attention. I ought, however, first to state that it is questionable 

 whether the Greeks were acquainted with Liquid Storax : Arab 

 writers, on the other hand, distinctly mention it, though their 

 accounts are far from satisfactory and clear. 1 



The first of these two statements is that of James Petiver, 

 an apothecary of London, who was noted as the possessor of 

 a considerable collection of objects of natural history. 

 . In the year 1708, that is ten years before his death, Petiver Accoimt by 

 presented to the Eoyal Society of London a communication 

 which, verbatim et literatim, is as follows : 



" The Manner of making Styrax liquida, alias Eosa Mallas. 



Communicated ly Mr. James Petiver, F.E.S. 



Rosa Mallas grows upon the Island Colross, at the upper end Rosa Mallas. 

 of the Red Sea near Cadess, which is 3 days Journey from Suez': 

 It is the Bark off a Tree (taken off every Year, and grows again) 

 boiled in Salt "Water till it comes to a Consistence like Bird- 

 lime, then separated and put into a Cask and brought to Judda, 

 and so to Mocha in June and July, where it sells from 60 to 120 

 Dollars per Barrel, according to its Goodness : the best is what 

 is freest from Clay and Dirt, which is commonly mixed with it ; 

 and the way to try it is by washing it in Salt Water which 

 will cleanse it : The Arabs and Turks call it Cotter Mija. 



KB. A Barrel is 420 1." 2 



A statement so precise and circumstantial was received with 

 more or less credit, and we find it quoted by Geoffroy, 3 Hill, 4 



vulgar reading for -ya/SoXir^s, as explained at length by Matthiolus (Comm. 

 in lib< i. Dioscorid. cap. Ixviii.) 



1 Avicennse Liber Canonis, lib. ii. tract. 2. cap. 431. 600. 623. (ed. Venet. 

 1564.) 



2 Philosophical Transactions, 1708-1709. Vol. xxvi. p. 44. 



3 Tract, de Mat. Med. (1741), t. ii. p. 493. 



4 History of the Materia Medica (1751), p. 713. 



