370 THE RADIX GALANG^E OF PHARMACY. 



1872. drop of hydrochloric acid be now added, a brisk effervescence will 

 take place. 



Saffron almost always contains a few of the pale yellow 

 stamens accidentally gathered ; but the pollen from them which 

 is detached when the drug is wetted, but which is minute in 

 quantity, is easily distinguished from carbonate of lime by not 

 dissolving when hydrochloric acid is added. Moreover, the form 

 of pollen-grains may be easily recognised under the microscope. 

 [N. Repert.f. Pharm. xix. 664.] 



HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE RADIX GALANG^ OF 

 PHARMACY. 



(Zur Geschichte der Cfalanga.) 



(Read before the Linnean Society, January 19, 1871.) 

 1871. IN discovering and describing the plant which yields the 



Radix galangce minoris of pharmacy, Dr. Hance has added an 

 interesting chapter to the history of a substance which for 

 many centuries has been an object of trade between Europe and 

 the East. Galangal does not, indeed, possess properties which 

 can claim for it the rank of an important medicine, being simply 

 a pungent aromatic of the nature of ginger ; but it has so long 

 held a place in the pharmacopoeias of Europe, and enters into so 

 many ancient receipts, that I need hardly apologize for offering 

 to the Linnean Society a few notes on its pharmacological 

 history. 



introduction Galangal was apparently unknown to the ancient Greeks and 

 Galangal. R omang . a t } east no men tion of it can be found in the classical 

 authors. Its introduction into Europe was due to the Arabians, 

 in whose writings it is noticed at a very early period. 



Thus Ibn Khurdadbah, an Arab geographer who served under 

 the Khalif Mutammid, A.D. 869-885, has left some information 

 respecting China, after which he speaks of the country of Sila, 



which exports musk, aloes (i.e. aloes- wood), camphor, 



porcelain, satin, cinnamon (cassia), and galangal. 1 



1 " Le Livre des Routes et des Provinces, par Ibn Khordadbeh, tradnit et 

 annot6 par C. Barbier do Mcynard," Journ. Antique, s4r. vi. tome v. (1865), 

 p. 294. 



