LIQUID STORAX. 143 



In a Report of the External Commerce of Bombay to which IBS?. 

 my attention was directed by my friend Dr. Koyle, the term 

 Hose Malloes is applied to a drug enumerated under the Rose Malloes. 

 category of Import ly Sea into the Port of Bombay}- 



The recurrence of this strange name, which Petiver's account 

 of Liquid Storax had made familiar, struck me as very curious, 

 and I wrote to Bombay for a sample of the drug so called. 

 This was kindly procured for me at the Bombay Custom House 

 by Dr. Carter, and proved to be our ordinary Liquid Storax. 

 It is imported chiefly from the Eed Sea, which it doubtless 

 reaches from Alexandria, to which port I found it was shipped 

 from Ehodes. Here then is the explanation of Petiver's state- 

 ment of the drug being carried southward from Suez it being 

 in fact, on its way to India. 



His term Cotter Mija is the Arabic 2*ju JoS Katr may a, 2*x Eastern 

 may'a being one of the Avicennian terms for Storax, and Li* 

 katr (literally a drop), a prefix indicating its liquid nature. 2 



The only other author with whom I am acquainted that 

 alludes to Rosa Mallas is Garcia, 3 who, when describing the 

 various sorts of Benzoin, mentions "Roga-malha" which he 

 asserts is the name applied by the Chinese to Liquid Storax. 



Whether it is the resin of the Rasamdla (Liquidamlar 



1 The following is an extract from the Report referred to : 



" Rose Malloes." cwt. qr. Ib. 



"From Aden 5 value 186 rupees 



Arabian Gulf . . 41 1574 



Persian Gulf. . . 12 480 



Total . . 58 2240 rupees." 



2 Lib. ii. cap. 623. (ed. Venet. 1564). It can scarcely be doubted, that in 

 this chapter on " Miha vel Meha " which the translators have rendered 

 Storax, Avicenna refers to the modern Liquid Storax. The passage is as 

 follows : 



" * * Storax humida alia est, quse extrahitur per se ipsam gumina : et 

 alia est quse extrahitur cum decoctione : per se autem extracta, est citrina, 

 et quando antiquatur, declinat ad aureum colorem, et est [preciosa et grata] : 

 sed quse extrahitur ex cortice est nigra : et illud ideo quoniam extrahitur 

 cum decoctione corticis illius arboris, et quod extrahitur, est storax humida : 

 et quod remanet sicut fsex et viuacia, est sicca." 



3 Aromatum et simplicium aliquot medicamentorum apud Indos nascentium 

 Historia. Antv. 1574. 



names. 



