30G MANUFACTURE OF BALSAM OF PERU. 



1863. collect floating on the surface, nearly the whole of the balsam 

 taken. Monardes says, however, that the balsam was thus 

 removed after the cooling of the water, an assertion which seems 

 improbable, since most of the balsam, if heavier than water, 

 sinks upon cooling. 



How far the balsam obtained by boiling the wood agreed in 

 properties with that procured after charring the bark, as is done 

 at present, it is not easy to say. It was certainly a dark 

 fragrant liquid, which when as thick as pitch was sometimes 

 inclosed in little calabashes, 1 such, I presume, as may still be 

 found in a few old collections of Materia Meclica. Some of 

 this which I have examined is a soft solid resin, sinking rapidly 

 in water, but rising to the surface when the water is made to 

 White balsam, boil. What the white balsam mentioned by De La Martiniere was 

 derived from, I know not : possibly it was the resin of liquidambar 

 which is still a product of the country, possibly (though I do 

 not think it likely) the resin from the pods of the balsam-tree. 



Another point of considerable interest brought to light by Dr. 

 Dorat's communication is that the resin (or more properly, as it 

 proves, gum-resin) naturally exuded from- the balsam-tree is en- 

 tirely devoid of balsamic odour and taste. As my friend Dr. 

 Professor Attfield has kindly undertaken a few experiments upon this 

 substance, I shall not here enter into farther particulars respect- 

 ing it, except to remark that its total dissimilarity from Balsam 

 of Tolu disproves the statement of those writers who have 

 maintained that that drug is the concrete balsam of the tiee 

 which yields Balsam of Peru. 



ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE MANUFACTUKE OF 

 BALSAM OF PEKU. 



1864. In my paper on Balsam of Peru I endeavoured to show 



1. That that drug has been always a production of Guatemala, 

 or rather of that part of it which is now called Salvador. 



2. That the tree which yields it is the Myroxylon Pereirce of 

 Klotzsch. 



1 De la Mjutmicre, l.r. 



