Mabch 1, 1892.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



55 



I 



CAMPHIRE AND CAMPHOR. 



By J. Ch. Sa^-er, F.L.S. 



N the l-4th verse of the 1st chapter of the Song 

 of Solomon we find : " My beloved is unto me as a 

 cluster of Camphire in the vineyards of Engedi." 

 At first sight the meaning of this verse is obscure. 

 The word translated " Camphire " is certainly not 



with ice," but this cannot mean, although it appears to say, 

 that the ice-cap ever reached the equator in either hemi- 

 sphere. Suppose that someone, reading it literally, were to 

 maintain this to be the author's belief, would not Sir 

 Robert Ball be entitled to call the assertion monstrous '? 

 Two pages before, he had spoken of "the simny regions 

 which seem never to have been invaded by the desolation 

 of an Ice Age " ; afterwards he twice mentions a huge 

 sheet of ice over "a large part of" one or the other 

 hemisphere ; and, in the concluding chapter, speaks of the 

 great ice-sheet as invading central Europe as far as Saxony, 

 covering the greater jDart of Great Britain, submerging 

 Canada, and burying much of that tract which now forms 

 the Eastern States of North America. All these passages 

 are just as incompatible with belief in an ice-cap extendmg 

 to the equator, as the whole tenor of Sir .Tohn Herschel's 

 teaching is with alleging the equality of summer and 

 winter mean temperatm-e. 



There was once some difference between the teaching of 

 Sir .John Herschel and that of Sir Robert Ball about the 

 astronomical theory of the Ice Age, but comparison of the 

 articles above quoted from the fourth and fifth editions of 

 Herschel's (hitlims will show that the author deliberately 

 withdrew his earlier contention that the eccentricity of the 

 earth's orbit did not materially affect the transition of 

 seasons. The statement in the later editions seems to 

 anticipate Dr. CroU's and Sir Robert Ball's theory, that 

 ice-ages can happen only when, the eccentricity being at or 

 near its maximum, the line of equinoxes is perpendicular 

 to the major axis of the earth's orbit, or nearly so. 



Strangely enough, Dr. CroU, who is supposed to have 

 submissively adopted Herschel's teaching, appears to have 

 been unaware of this change, although it was made seven- 

 teen years before the publication of CUiiiutf uikI Time : for in 

 his introduction to that book, and also in its first appendix, 

 he quotes and criticises article 368, as it appeared in the 

 earlier editions of the (lutlint's. 



It is necessary to mention only two passages in Climate 

 (i)ul Time, in order to prove that Dr. CroU was not one of 

 those who have asserted the heat received from the sun 

 during summer to be equal to that received during winter. 

 On page 55 he says that change in the eccentricity of the 

 earth's orbit may afi'ect climate by increasing or diminish- 

 ing the dift'erence between summer and winter temperature ; 

 thus showing his knowledge of the familiar fact tliat some 

 difi'erence does, ayd always must, exist. And on page 87 

 he twice uses the relation of 7 to 4 in dealing with this 

 difi'erence : applying it in the first instance to the proportion 

 between summer and winter sunshine in the latitude of 

 Edinburgh, and in the second to the proportion between 

 winter and summer nights in either hemisphere. Is not 

 the ratio of 7 to 4 sufficiently near that of Sir Robert Ball's 

 63 to 37, for the purpose of protecting Dr. CroU from the 

 imputation of having carelessly adopted the error, inadver- 

 tently suggested by a statement which there is some reason 

 for belie\"iug that he had never seen ? 



Your obedient servant, 



Newcastle upon Tyne, B. Noble. 



17th Februarv, 1K92. 



intended to convey to the mind any idea of the substance 

 we now know as Camphor ; Solomon was very happy in 

 his choice of similes, and such a comparison would have 

 been absurd. In the original of this poem or love- 

 song, written about 1000 years b.c, the word translated 

 Camphire is Cuphei-im, the Egyptian equivalent of which 

 is Hennah. In Egypt, on one of the nights before a 

 wedding, " Hennah " is applied with linen bandages to the 

 hands and feet of the bride untU the next morning, when 

 they appear of that rosy red which Egyptians believe to be 

 love's proper hue. This night, in the order of the marriage 

 ceremonials, is called " the night of the Hennah." The 

 word " cluster,'' found in the text, no doubt refers to the 

 flowers of this plant, which are of a golden j'ellow and are 

 borne in clusters ; they are remarkably fragrant whether 

 fresh or dry, and were much esteemed by women in the 

 East, especiaUy the .Jewish women, who carried bouquets 

 of them in their bosoms and twined them into crowns for 

 their heads. 



This Hennah is Pliny's " Cyprus of Egypt," and the 

 women of Eg\-pt and other Eastern countries stain not 

 only the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet 

 with a paste of Hennah leaves, but also the tips of the 

 fingers, the nails and the kuuckles, from which custom 

 probably arises the designation of Aurora as " rosy," or 

 " I'osy-fingered " (poJoJaKTuAo? ijios). 



A considerable business is done in the leaves of the 

 Hennah, which are collected in the green state and dried 

 in the sun. The leaves are then coarsely powdered and 

 beaten up with Catechu, and the freshly made paste is laid 

 on at bed-time and renewed in the morning ; it leaves a 

 peculiar reddish-orange stain, ruddy, and somewhat simUar 

 to the colour of red ochre, though hardly so deep, which 

 lasts on the skin and nails for some three or fom- weeks, 

 until removed by renewed growth. This colouration is 

 much admired by Mussulmans in India and many Eastern 

 countries. 



On moistening the dried leaves a slight odour is per- 

 ceptible; their taste is bitter and faintly aromatic, owing to 

 an essential oil and tannin contained in them. A medica- 

 ment prepared fi-om them is employed by the Arabs in the 

 treatment of wounds of all kinds, causing the skin to grow 

 over and healing them very quickly ; these eft'ects are 

 probably due to some exciting action of the essential oil 

 and the astringent properties of the tannin. They use this 

 remedy priucipally on horses, to heal wounds or sores 

 caused by friction of the harness or otherwise on a journey. 

 Haviug stopped for a rest and imsaddled, they will apply 

 a plaister to it and continue their march without more 

 thought of the wound, which, if it does not heal, at least 

 does not extend by fi'iction, and causes less suffering to the 

 horse. They also employ it as a means of preventing the 

 opening of old wounds where the hair has not grown over 

 the scar. It closes and hardens the tissues — in fact, tans 

 the skin. For similar reasons, the Arabs who can afford 

 to indulge in the sport of gazelle hunting will give their 

 horses a foot-bath of Hennah, especially if the animals are 

 young, or have not taken exercise for some time. There 

 may be some analogy to this in the custom prevaUing 

 amongst Arabian women of staining the palms of their 

 hands and the soles of their feet — it may render the skin 

 less tender. 



This shrub, being known to the Arabs as " Henne-al- 

 hennah," appears to be a native of Arabia. It has been 

 cultivated from its earliest times, and is now very common 

 thi'oughout India, Cabul, and Persia, as weU as along the 

 coast of the Mediterranean. Botanically, it is now known 

 to us as the Lawsvnia inermis of LLnmeus. It flowers and 

 seeds most of the year, and is much used for hedges, 



