146 



ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON STORAX. 



1863. 



Professor 

 Krinos of 

 Athens. 



Ancient 



History 



of Storax. 



3. That the resin called Liquid Storax is produced by Liquid- 

 ambar orientale, Mill., a tree indigenous to the south-west of Asia 

 Minor, where the drug is collected. 



These conclusions I had reason to believe were generally ac- 

 cepted, until I received a few weeks ago a pamphlet by Professor 

 Stamatios D. Krinos, cf Athens, which somewhat disputes their 

 correctness. In vindicating my own opinions, however, I wish to 

 draw attention to the new facts put forth in the learned essay 

 of the Greek Professor of Pharmacology, and to couple with 

 them some additional information on Storax of which I have 

 become possessed. 



Professor Krinos, whose pamphlet, entitled Ilept 2,Tvpateo<; 

 SiaTpt,(3r] <j)ap pa/coy pa<f> i /crj (A PJiarmacographical Essay on 

 Storax), 1 is in modern Greek, 2 commences by stating that he 

 will endeavour to show : 



1. That Liquid Storax was known to the ancient Greek 

 physicians. 



2. The reasons why he presumes that the text of Dioscorides 

 requires a slight change. 



3. That the Solid Storax of ancient authors was not the pro- 

 duce of Styrax officinale, L, but of the tree called in modern 

 Greek Zvy/o, and by botanists Liquidainbar orientale, namely, 

 the same tree as that from the bark of which Liquid Storax 

 is obtained by decoction and expression. 



In support of the first proposition Dr. Krinos gives an elabo- 

 rate review of the ancient accounts of Storax, from which, but 

 especially from the statements of the later Greek writers, he 

 draws the conclusion that Liquid Storax was a drug with which 

 they were acquainted. In the works of Paulus ^Egineta, he ob- 

 serves, we first find mentioned, besides Solid Storax, a second 

 kind, Liquid Storax, and also the resin of the tree, Zuyia, which is 

 the same thing as Liquid Storax. Aetius, who lived in the sixth 

 century is cited as mentioning a Liquid Storax; and also a 

 spurious treatise of Galen, the writer of which referring to the 



p, 1862, 8 vo, p. 27. 



9 I am indebted to the kindness of D. P. Scaramanga, Esq., for translat- 

 ing the pamphlet. 



