176 MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



distillation of the green tops and cones of the stone-pine (pinus- 

 lembra), which is known in medicine by the name of oleum templi- 

 num, or popularly, kruinholzoel. It is somewhat greenish, or some- 

 times of a golden yellow, very fragrant and aromatic. 



True Burgundy pitch is a kind of rosin prepared in great quan- 

 tities in the neighbourhood of Neuscbatel, from the Norway spruce 

 fir. The turpentine of this fir is peculiarly thick, and hence con- 

 cretes around the incisions without flowing down. It is in this man- 

 ner picked off, and when a sufficient quantity is collected, it is put 

 with water into large boilers, melted, and then strained under a 

 press, through close cloths, into barrels, in which it is transported 

 for sale. Burgundy pitch, thus procured, is a brittle, opaque, light- 

 yellow, or jBometimes reddish brown rosin, of such consistency that 

 it will barely soften by the heat of the human body j and is hence 

 much used in plaisters. This substance is also sometimes obtained 

 from the larch. 



The rosin called frankincense is supposed to exsude spontaneously, 

 and not by incision, from the Norway spruce, and to undergo no 

 preparation. It is brittle, in small roundish masses, of a brownish 

 yellow on the outside, and white internally. It possesses the com- 

 mon properties of the turpentines, and has a very pleasant smell 

 when burnt. Ants, for some unknown purpose, collect this sub- 

 stance, which is found in pieces throughout their nests or hills, and 

 was at one time supposed to be a secretion of their own, and hence 

 distinguished by the name of electrum formicarum, as it was by that 

 of wild frankincense, thus Germanicum, summentum silvestre. 



All the turpentines in medicine have been considered as hot, stimu- 

 lating corroborants and detergents; qualities which they possess in 

 in common. They stimulate the stomach, and prove laxative ; when 

 carried into the blood-vessels they excite the whole system, and thus 

 render themselves serviceable in chronic rheumatism and paralysis. 

 Turpentine readily passes off by urine, which it imbues with a pecu- 

 liar odour; also by perspiration and by exhalation from the lungs : 

 and to these respective effects are ascribed the virtues it possesses in 

 gravelly complaints, scurvy and pulmonic disorders. Turpentine is 

 much used in gleets and fluor albus, and in general with much suc- 

 cess. The essential oil, in which the virtues of the turpentine reside, 

 is not only preferred for external use as a rubefacient, but also inter- 

 nally as a diuretic and styptic ; the latter of which qualifies it pos- 



