6; 



p 



~=^ t^s employed for this purpose iahis t™c, of the proper season of the year for eom.neacing the 



able to rofe U " "" , ""''"'" ^"^ ''" "^^"^ "^ ^'^^ J"'-' ^'1' though eommentators have not been 



PIanL7l ■> V , "^"'^ ^^ *" ^""""'^^^ ='"*'^°^ t'' *'-•'• P™P- Pl-- i° the Linnean Sj,ccies 



irr /' ^"^'"'^"tly ^^ident that three or four kinds of turpentine were in use among the aneient 



phys^eians, M eorresponded, in their properties, with those found in the shops of the moderns/ The 

 mode of extraetn.g the liquid resin of the Pine, however, is not mentioned by Theophrastus, or by any 

 writer of ant^,uuy sufficiently in detail to deserve insertion here, and we shall therefore transeribe the 

 aecount given by Duhamel, (in his " Dnia des A,-brcs,"J who is more eircnmstantial than any other author, 

 anc wlio, though not much more precise than the older naturalists in defining the particular species of trees 

 most e ng.ble tor the operations, seems to have acquired very accurate information respecting the operations 

 themselves, and several interesting circumstances connected with them. 



It IS well known that all Pines, even of the same species, do not yield an equal quantity of resin. 



This difference 



Some 



produce tliree pints in one summer, and others not half a gallon the whole time they last". 



does not seem to depend on the size or on the age of the tree, or, altogether, on the nature of the soil, 



because U is ohservablc even in the same forest; but, in general, it has been remarked, that trees with the 



tlnckest bark and wh.ch have been most exposed to the heat of the sun, yield the most. It is usual to select 



such as are of about four or five feet in circumference. At the foot of the tree a hole is made in the cround to 



the depth of eight or nine inches, and which will hold nearly a quart of the juice. Owing to the looseness 



ot the soil m newly made pits, a portion of the juice of course is lost by transudation, but in mixing with the 



earth, it at length forms a mass sufficiently compact to resist any further draining. Though much attention 



IS generally paid to cleaning the soil contiguous to the pits, sand, leaves, and fragments of bark will inevitably 



collect m the latter, and render a filtering process afterwards necessary. In some countries, a hole is cut in 



the substance of the tree itself near the root, in order to save the juice more free from impurities, but this 



practice is attended with danger to the former. When the proper receptacles are prepared, and a little while 



before the season for making incisions, the coarse back is stripped off, down to the Hber, to the extent of 



about six inches. This precaution is the more necessary, in order that the edge of the instruments employed 



for making the incisions may not be injured; for if any splinters or filaments should be left in the wounds, 



the free course of the juice to the pits would be impeded; besides, in taking off the outer bark, it is scarcely 



possible to prevent fragments from falling down, and mixing with the juice, if any should have been collected, 



m the pits. As the resin flows most abundantly in hot weather, the incisions are begun near the end of May, 



and the extension of them continued to September. After the outer bark has been taken away, the inner 



bark and a thin slip of wood are cut off, with a very sharp tool, so that there may be a wound in the tree 



not more than three inches square by an inch deep; this first incision is made near the foot of the tree. 



Immediately after the operation, the resinous juice begins to exude, in very transparent drops, from the 



ligneous part and from between this and the bark; the bark itself yields scarcely any. The hotter the weather 



the greater is the production of resin, and the flowing ceases altogether at the approach of the chilliness 



of September. To facilitate the supj^ly, the incisions are renewed once in three or four days, or oftener; 



for this purpose, the wound is a little enlarged, and a very thin slip taken off each time, so that an incision 



which, at the beginning of the summer, was only three or four inches in diameter, becomes, by the end of 



September, a foot and a half wide, and two or three inches deep. The following year a new wound is made 



just above the former, and managed in a similar manner. Thus, pines which have been cut for twelve or 



fifteen years have, one above another, twelve or fifteen wounds, and these several wounds reach to the 



height of as many feet, whence it becomes necessary to ascend steps to make the later incisions. It is not of 



much consequence on what side of the tree the incisions be made. The operators are commonly o-uided by 



the shape of the trunk, the situation of the ground, and the facility of digging pits; but there certainly 



seems to be some advantage in preferring that side of the tree which is most exposed to the sun. When the 



.--' 



e t( 



BsAtio-th |Wrv yxp >j Tfp/Aiitfof. nxt yap trwEtrlyixuioi, xati luui^ia-rxlr), xxi x»[pOTaTfl Ttj e<r/*n, aXX* oXiyn, aevrifx it ij tXxTm Kxt virrnvti. xovipor'ipxt yxp th; 7r(uxiVJ)f. ■mXtiTTn it 



. By comparing the above description of t\\Q jukes of terebiiithiniferous trees with that given by modern, writers on the Materia Medica, we 

 should ahnost be led to decide, with positiveness, that the kinds enumerated by Theophrastus were no other than the Cyprian, the Stras burg, 

 and the Common Turpentines of the European /ViflrwacojOfc/ic; at any rate, from the description of the (fujTii-i!) wjuxtvjj, we cannot but conclude that 

 Bellonius has erred egregiously in considering the tteuxb of Theophrastus as the Picea, and the ITitu; as the P'tniis of the Roman writers, a conclusion 

 confirmed by a passage in Scribonius Largus, who, in speaking of the rcsina pityina, defines it in these words, " id est ex picea drbore." (See 

 Comj), Med. c. 83.) . ..... 



2 M 



