516 LAURACE^. 



Hiogo and Osaka exported in 1871, 7089 peculs (945,200 lb.), and 

 Nagasaki 745 peculs (99,333 lb.), the total value being 116,718 dollars.^ 

 In 1877 the value of camphor exported from Japan was stated to be 

 equal to 240,000 dollars. The imports of Unrefined Camphor into the 

 United Kingdom amounted in 1870 to 12,368 cwt. (1,385,216 lb.) ; of 

 Refined Camphor in the same year to 2361 cwt.^ 



Camphor is largely consumed by the natives of India ; the quantity 

 of the crude drug imported into Bombay in the vear 1872-73 was 

 3801 cwt.' 



Uses — Camphor has stimulant properties and is frequently used in 

 medicine both internally and externally. It is largely consumed in India. 



Other kinds of Camphor ; Camphor Oils. 



Camphor, as stated above at page 512, was the name originally ap- 

 plied to the product of Dryobalanops ; it was then also given to that of 

 Camphor Laurel, and in 1725 Caspar Neumann, of Berlin, first pointed 

 out that many essential oils afford crystals (" stearoptenes " of later 

 chemists), for which he proposed the general name of camphor. Many 

 of them are agreeing with the formula C^^H^^O, and there are also 

 numerous liquids of the same composition. It would appear, however, 

 that no stearoptene of any other plant is absolutely identical with com- 

 mon camphor; Lallemand's statement (see p. 479), that oil of spike 

 affords the latter, requires further examination. 



Many other liquid and solid constituents of essential oils, or sub- 

 stances afforded by treating them with alcoholic potash, answer to the 

 formula C'"H'^(OH). Among them we may point out the two following : 

 they are the only substances of the class of " camphors," besides common 

 camphor, which are of some practical importance. 



Barns Cam2)hor, Borneo Camphor, Malayan Camplior, Dryo- 

 balanops Camphor — This, as already explained, is the substance to 

 which the earliest notices of camphor refer. The tree which affords 

 it is Dryohalanop>s aromatica Gartn. (D. Gamphora Colebrooke), of the 

 order Dipterocarp>ea}, one of the most majestic objects of the vegetable 

 kingdom.^ The trunk is very tall, round, and straight, furnished near 

 the base with huge buttresses ; it rises 100 to 150 feet without a branch, 

 then producing a dense crown of shining foliage, 50 to 70 feet in dia- 

 meter, on which are scattered beautiful white flowers of delicious 

 fragi'ance. The tree is indigenous to the Dutch Residencies on the 

 north-west coast of Sumatra, between 0° and 3° N. lat., from Ayer 

 Bangis to Barus and Singkel, and to the northern part of Borneo, and 

 the small British island of Labuan. 



The camphor is obtained from the trunk, in longitudinal fissures 

 of which it is found in a solid crystalline state, and extracted b}'^ 

 laboriously splitting the wood. It can only be got by the destruc- 



^ Commercial Bepo^-ts from H. M. ConsuU ^Statement of the Trade and Navifjation 



in Japan, No. 1, 1872. — The returns for of Bombay for 1872-73. ii. 27. 

 Hiogo and Osaka are upon the authority of * For a full account and figure of it, 



the Chamber of Commerce. see W. H. de Vriese's excellent Mdmoire sur 



2 Statement of the Trade ami Navigation h Camplirier de Stimatra et de Borneo, 



of the United Kingdom for 1870. p. 61— no Leide, 1857. 23 p. 4°. and 2 plates, 

 later returns accessible. 



