672 I'HILOSOi'HICAL TKANSACTIONS. [anNO 1773. 



muscles of the back ; d, the cavity of tlie air bladder ; e, the body of the spine ; f, the medulla 

 spinalis; g, the large arteiy and vein ; hh, the cut ends of the two large organs; ii, the cut ends 

 of the two small organs ; k, the partition between tlie organs. 



XL. Some Observations on Myrrh* made in Abyssinia, in 1 77 Ij and sent to 

 IVm. Hunter, M.D., with Specimens, in Feb. \Tlb. By James Bruce,'^ 

 Esq. p. 408. 



The ancients, and particularly Dioscorides, spoke of myrrh in such a manner 

 as to make us suppose, either that they have described a drug which they had 

 never seen ; or that the drug seen and described by them is absolutely unknown 

 to modern naturalists and physicians. The Arabs, however, who form the link 

 of the chain between the Greek physicians and ours, in whose country the 

 myrrh was produced, and whose language gave it its name, have left us 

 undeniable evidence, that what we know by the name of myrrh, is in nothing 

 different from the myrrh of the ancients, growing in the same countries from 

 which it was brought formerly to Greece ; that is, from the east coast of Arabia 

 Felix, bordering on the Indian Ocean, and that low land in Abyssinia on the 

 south-east of the Red Sea, included nearly between the 12th and 13th degree of 

 north latitude, and limited on the west by a meridian passing through the island 

 Massowa, and on the east by another passing through Cape Guardsoy, without 

 the straits of Babelmandel. This country the Greeks knew by the name of 



* Some years after this paper was sent to the a. s. Mr. Bruce gave a farther account of myrrh in 

 the 5th vol. of his travels to discover the source of the Nile, whence it would appear that tlie 

 plant , from which the genuine myrrh is obtained, is a species of mimosa. 



f This celebrated Abyssinian traveller was bom at his paternal estate at Kinnaird, near Falkirk, in 

 Dec. 1729, and where he died in 17^4, in the 6"5th year of his age. He received the first nidiments 

 of his education at Harrow school, which he finished in his own country. An early propensity to 

 travel induced him to seek an appointment in India ; but being disappointed in that, he engaged m 

 die wine-trade in London ; soon after, however, he visited several parts of Europe ; but on the death 

 of his father, he returned to Britain, in 176"l. Being offered the consulship of Algiers, he accepted 

 that office, as affording an opportunity of gratifying his roving disposition. Accordingly in 176'3 he 

 set out for that place ; in his route visiting France, Italy, Greece, Syria, and the isles of the Mediter- 

 ranean. After a year spent at Algiers, studying and practising the African languages, he commenced 

 his travels in that countr}', visiting many of the interior parts, particularly Egypt and Abyssinia ; 

 where after numerous dangers and distresses he reached the sources of the Nile, the chief object of all 

 his labours, v here he arrived in November 1770 ; whence returning by Nubia, and encountering asto- 

 nishing difficulties, he at length, after 4 years absence arrived at Cairo the beginning of tlie) ear 1773. 

 Whence returning through several parts of Europe, where he met with tlie favourable reception due to so 

 extraordinary a traveller, he arrived in his native country after an absence of Vi years. In tlie course of 

 his travels, Mr. B. met with such uncommon tvtiits, that many persons were disposed to question his 

 veracity in the accounts he gave of them; which for many years prevented the publication of his 

 travels, which only took place in 1 790, in 5 volumes in 4to. It has been said that tlie king purchased 

 Mr. Bruce's drawings for 20C01. and also defrayed the expence of engraving the plates for his great 

 work. 



