304 MANUFACTURE OF BALSAM OF PERU. 



1863. for in consequence of the representations of missionary ecclesi- 

 astics, Pope Pius V. was induced to issue a bull under date 1571, 

 authorizing the use of the balsam produced in the country for 

 the preparation of the Holy Chrism of the Eoraan Catholic 

 Church. A copy of this curious document is preserved among 

 the archives of Guatemala (of which state Salvador was formerly 



Origin of the a part), as well as in the Vatican at Rome. 1 As to the balsam 



name. having acquired the name of Peru, a country so remote from its 



place of production, the circumstance is intelligible when we 



know that during the early period of the Spanish dominion, the 



productions of Central America were shipped to Callao, the port 



of Lima, the capital of Peru, and great emporium of its trade, and 



thence transmitted to Spain. From this cause the drug acquired 



the name of the country from which it was shipped to Europe, 



Names of exactly in the same manner as Turkey gum arabic, Turkey 



drugs derived ^y^}, as t India rhubarb, Bombay senna, etc. have acquired 



from place of J . . 



shipment, and still bear designations very little indicative of their real 

 origin. In proof of this I may quote an interesting passage oc- 

 curring in De la Martiniere's Dictionnaire Geographique 

 (Paris, 1768), where under the head Callao, the author enumer- 

 ating its imports, mentions as coming from Sonsonate, Eealejo 

 and Guatemala, the Balsam which bears the name of Peru, but 

 which, says he, comes in reality almost entirely from Guatemala. 

 He adds that there are two kinds of it, the white and the brown, 

 the latter being the more esteemed. 2 



Alcedo, author of a Geographical Dictionary published at 

 Madrid in 1786-9, writing of Sonsonate, observes that it includes 



1 Vide also Pharm. Journ. and Trans, vol. ii. (1861) p. 446. 



2 "... Dans la meme rue du cot du nord sont les magasins des mar- 

 chandises que les vaisseaux Espagnols apportent du Chili, du Perou et du 

 Mexique. 



Du Chili viennent les cordages, les cuirs, les suifs . . . 



Du Mexique, comme de Sonsonate, Realejo, Guatemala, de la bray et du 

 gaudron qui n'est bon que pour le bois, parce qu'il brule les cordages ; des 

 bois pour les teintures, du souffre et du baume qui porte le nom de Perou, 

 mais qui vient effective en t presque tout de Guatemala. II y en a de deux 

 sortes, de blanc et do brun ; ce dernier est plus estime, on le met dans des 

 cocos quand il a la consistance de la bray, mais communement il vient dans 

 des pots de terre en liqueur, alors il est sujet a etre falsifie, et ine!6 d'huile 

 pour en augmenter la quantite"." DE LA MARTINIERE, Dictionnaire Geogrn- 

 phiqne (Paris, 1768, fol.), Tome 2, p. 48. 



