84^ GUTTIFER^. 



Peru, the latter strange name no doubt being a corruption of the above 

 mentioned Ghitta-iemou. The appellation "gummi de Peru" is met with 

 in pharmaceutical tariffs during the l7th and 18th centuries. 



Gamboge is one of the articles of the tariff of the pharmaceutical 

 shops of the City of Frankfort in 1612: "Gutta gemou, a strong purga- 

 tive dried juice, coming from the Kingdom of Patana in the East 

 Indies." Patana or Patani is the most populous province of the east 

 coast of the peninsula of Malacca. The Dutch established there a 

 factory in 1602, and were followed in 1612 by the English. The 

 settlement was abandoned in 1700 ; gamboge was probably brought 

 there from the opposite shore of the gulf of Siam.^ 



In 1615, a considerable quantity of gamboge was offered for sale in 

 London by the East Indian Company. The entry respecting it in the 

 Court Minute Books of the company under date October 13, 1615, is to 

 this effect: — Three chests, one rundlet, and a basket, containing 13, 

 14, or 15 hundredweights, more or less, of Camhogium " a drugge 

 unknown Aere," — the use of which w^as much commended as a "a gentle 

 'purge," were offered for sale at 5s. per lb., but met with no purchaser. 



Jacob Bontius,^ a Dutch physician, resident, towards 1629, in 

 Batavia, stated that " gutta Cambodja," as he termed the drug, came 

 from the country of the same name; he supposed it to be derived from an 

 Euphorbiaceous plant. 



Parkinson,^ wdio was an apothecary of London and wrote in 1640, 

 speaks of this " CaTnbugio," called by some Cafharticuni aureuni, as a 

 drug of recent importation which arrived in the form of " ivreathes or 

 roides " yellow within and without. 



In the London Pharmacoposia of 1650, gamboge is called Gutta 

 Gamha^ or Ghitta jemou. 



The mother plant of the drug was not fully examined and figured 

 until 1864 ; yet in 1677 already, Hermann, a German physician residing 

 in Ceylon, had pointed out that it was a Garcinia.'' 



Secretion — We have examined a portion of a branch two inches in 

 diameter of the gamboge-tree," and have found the yellow gum-resin to 

 be contained chiefly in the middle layer of the bark in numerous ducts 

 like those occurring in the roots of Inula Helenium and other roots of 

 the .same natural order. A little is also secreted in the dotted vessels 

 of the outermost layer of the wood, and in the pith. The wood, which 

 is white, acquires a bright yellow tint when exposed to the vapour of 

 ammonia or to alkaline solutions. 



Production — At the commencement of the rainy season the gam- 

 boge-collectors start for the forest in search of the trees which in some 

 localities are plentiful. Having found one of the full size they make a 

 spiral incision in the bark round half the circumference of the trunk, 

 and place a joint of bamboo to receive the sap which slowly exudes for 



1 FlUckiger, Doctimente zur Geschichte or extract of rhubarb. It is still applied to 

 der Pharmacie, 1876. 41. gamboge. 



2 De Medicina Indorum, lib. iv. Lugdxini ' Hanbury in Trans, of Linn. Soc. xxiv. 

 Batav. (1642) 119. 150. (1864) 487. tab. 50; also Science Papn:<, 



3 Theatrum Botanicum (1640) 1575. 1876. 326. 



* This name is the Hindustani G6td- ^ Obligingly sent to us by Dr. Jamie of 



ganbd, signifying according to Moodeen Singapore. 

 SheviS {Suppl. to Pharm. of India, 83) juice 



