MASTICHE. 161 



millions of cwt., value £28,000,000 ; much of this was shipped to 

 England. 



Uses — Raisins are an ingredient of Compound Tincture of Car- 

 damoms and of Tincture of Senna. They have no medicinal properties, 

 and are only used for the sake of the sacchai'ine matter they impart.' 



ANACARDIACE^. 



MASTICHE. 



Mastix, Resina Mastiche ; Mastich ; F. Mastic ; G. Mastix. 



Botanical Origin — Pistacia Lentiscus L., the lentisk, is a dioecious 

 evergreen, mostly found as a shrub a few feet high ; but when allowed 

 to attain its full growth, it slowly acquires the dimensions of a small 

 tree having a dense head of foliage. It is a native of the Mediteri'anean 

 shores from Syria to Spain, and is found in Portugal, Morocco and the 

 Canaries. In some parts of Italy it is largely cut for fuel. 



Mastich is collected in the northern part of the island of Scio, which 

 was long regarded as the only region in the world capable of affording 

 it. Experiments made in 1856 by Orphanides- have proved that 

 excellent mastich might be easily obtained in other islands of the 

 Archipelago, and probably also in Continental Greece. The same 

 botanist remarks that the trees yielding mastich in Scio are exclu- 

 sively iniale. 



History — Mastich has been known from a very remote period, and 

 is mentioned by Theophrastus,^ who lived in the 4th century before the 

 Christian era. Both Dioscorides and Pliny notice it as a production of 

 the island of Chio, the modern Scio. 



Avicenna * described (about the year 1000) two sorts of mastich, the 

 white or Roman (i.e. Mediterranean or Christian), and the dark or 

 Nabathsean, — the latter probably one of the Eastern forms of the drug 

 mentioned at p. 165. 



Benjamin of Tudela,' who visited the island of Scio when travelling 

 to the East about A.D. 1160-1173, also refers to it yielding mastich, 

 which in fact has always been one of its most important productions, 

 and from the earliest times intimately connected with its history. 



Mastich was prescribed in the 13th century by the Welsh " Meddy- 

 gon Myddvai " as an ingi-edient of ointments. 



In the middle ages the mastich of Scio was held as a monopoly by 

 the Greek emperors, one of whom, Michael Paleologus in 1261, permitted 

 the Genoese to settle in the island. His successor Audronicus II. 

 conceded in 1304 the administration of the island to Benedetto Zaccaria, 

 a rich patrician of Genoa and the proprietor of the alum works of Fokia 



^ The amount of this is very small. On ^ Heldreich, NutzpflanTen Griecherdands, 



macerating crushed raisins in proof spirit in Athen, 1862. 61. 



the proportion of 2 oz. to a pint, we found ^ jji^t. Plant, lib. ix. c. 1. 



each fluid ounce of the tincture so obtained •* Lib. ii. c. 462. 



to afford by evaporation to dryness 28 ^ Wright, Early Traveh in Palegtinfi, 



grains of a dark viscid sugary extract. 1848. 77. (Bohn's series). 



