374 



THE RADIX GALANG.E OF PHARMACY. 



1871. not in England, but in Russia. 1 It is there used for a variety 

 Kastoika. f purposes, as for flavouring the liqueur called nastoika. The 

 drug is also employed by brewers, and to impart a pungent 

 flavour to vinegar, a use noticed by Pomet 2 so long ago as 

 1694. As a popular medicine and spice, it is much sold in 

 Livonia, Esthonia, and in Central Eussia; and by the Tartars 

 it is taken with tea. It is also in requisition in Eussia as a 

 cattle medicine; and all over Europe there is a small con- 

 sumption of it in regular medicine. 



There is doubtless some quantity of galangal of both sorts 

 used in India. By a Report on the External Commerce of the 

 Presidency of Bombay for the year 1865-66 I find that there 

 was imported into the Port of Bombay of " Gallingall " from 

 China 520 cwt., from Penang, Singapore, the Straits of Malacca, 

 and Siam 70 cwt., and from Ports in Malabar 834 cwt. Of the 

 total quantity (1424 cwt.), 716 cwt. was reshipped to the 

 Arabian and Persian Gulfs. 



According to Eondot, writing in 1848, the trade in this drug 

 is on the decline; 3 and the statistics which I have examined 

 tend strongly to show that this is the fact. 



The foregoing notes may be thus summarized : 



Historical 1. Galangal was noticed by the Arab geographer Ibn 

 Summary. Khurdadbali in the ninth century as a production of the region 

 which exports musk, camphor, and aloes-wood. 



2. It is used by the Arabians and later Greek physicians, and 

 was known in Northern Europe in the twelfth century. 



3. It was imported during the thirteenth century with other 

 Eastern spices by way of Aden, the Eed Sea, and Egypt, to 

 Akka, in Syria, whence it was carried to other ports of the 

 Mediterranean. 



4. Two forms of the drug were noticed by Garcia d'Orta in 

 1563; these are still found in commerce, and are derived 



1 Professor Regel, of St. Petersburg, and A. v. Bunge, of Dorpat, and Mr. 

 Justus Eck, of London, have all obligingly supplied me with information as 

 to the use of galangal in Russia. My thanks are also due to my friend 

 Professor Fluckiger, who on this, as on other occasions, has kindly offered me 

 valuable suggestions. 



2 Hiatoire, des Drogues, Paris, 1694, fol., part 1, p. 64. 



* Commerce <P Exportation dt la Chine ; Paris, 1848, p. 98. 





