GUMMI ACACLE. 235 



occurs in Diodorus Siculus (2, 49) io the first century of our era, 

 also in the list of goods of Alexandria mentioned in our article on 

 Galbanum. 



Gum was employed by the Arabian physicians and by those of the 

 school of Salerno, yet its utility in medicine and the arts was but little 

 appreciated in Europe until a much later period. For the latter purpose 

 at least the gummy exudations of indigenous trees were occasionally 

 resorted to, as distinctly pointed out about the beginning of the 12th 

 century, by Theophilus or Rogker:^ "gummi quot exit de arbore 

 ceraso vel pruno." 



During the middle ages, the small supplies that reached Europe were 

 procured through the Italian traders from Egypt and Turkey. Thus 

 Pegolotti,- who wrote a work on commerce abotit A.D. 1340, speaks of 

 gum arable as one of the drugs sold at Constantinople by the pound 

 not by the quintal. Again, in a list of drugs liable to duty at Pisa in 

 1305,* and in a similar list relating to Paris in 1349,^ we find mention 

 of gum arable. It is likewise named by Pasi,^ in 1521, as an export 

 from Venice to London. 



Gum also reached Europe from Western Africa, with which region 

 the Portuguese had a direct trade as early as 1449. 



Production — Respecting the origin of gum in the tribe Acacice, no 

 observations have been made similar to those of H. von Mohl on traga- 

 canth.6 



It appears that gum generally exudes from the trees spontaneously, 

 in sufiicient abundance to render wounding the bark superfluous. The 

 Somali tribes of East Africa, however, are in the habit of promoting the 

 outflow by making long incisions in the stem and branches of the tree.' 

 In Kordofan the lumps of gum are broken ofl" with an axe, and collected 

 in baskets. 



The most valued product, called Hashabi gum, from the province of 

 Dejara in Kordofan, is sent northward from Bara and El Obeid to 

 Dabbeh on the Nile, and thence down the river to Egypt ; or it reaches 

 the White Nile at Mandjai-a. 



A less valuable gum, known as Uashahi el Jesire, comes from Sennaar 

 on the Blue Nile ; and a still worse from the barren table-land of 

 Takka, lying between the eastern tributaries of the Blue Nile and the 

 Atbara and ilareb ; and from the highlands of the Bisharrin Arabs 

 between Khartum and the Red Sea. This gum is transported by way of 

 Khartum or El Mekheir (Berber), or by Suakin on the Red Sea. Hence, 

 the worst kind of gum is known in Egypt as Saraagh Savakumi (Suakin 

 GuTn). 



According to Munzinger,* a better sort of gum is produced along the 

 Samhara coast towards Berbera, and is shipped at Massowa. Some of 

 it reaches Egj'-pt by way of Jidda, which town being in the district of 



* Schedula diversarum arlium, Hg's edition * Ordonnances des Rois de France,u. (1729) 

 in Eitelberger's Quellenschn/ten fur Kunst- 310. 



geschichtc, vii. (1874) 60. « Tariffa de ■pest e misure, Venet. 1521, 



* Delia Declma e di varie allre gravezze 204. First edition, 1503. 



imposte dal commune di Firenze, iiL (1766) ^ See, however, MoUer, Academy of 



18. Vienna, Sitzunrjsberichte, June 1875. 



' Bonaini, Statuti inediti della cittd di ' Vaughan (Drugs of Aden), Pharm. 



Pim, Firenze, iii. (1857) 106. 114. Jmcrn. xii. (1853) 226. 



* Private information to F.A.F. 



