174 MEDICAL BOTANY. 



notice it. Vespasian and Titus each carried some of the balsam to Rome as 

 a great rarity, arid Pompey exhibited one of the trees at his triumphal entry. 

 At the time of the visit of Alexander the Great to Judea, it was so scarce that 

 all that could be collected during a summer's day was one spoonful ; and it is 

 stated that in the most plentiful year, not more than seven gallons were ob- 

 tained in the whole country. Of course it bore a very high price, being sold 

 at twice its weight in silver. There are three kinds mentioned by Pliny and 

 others : the Opobalsamum, which was a green liquor found in the kernel of 

 the fruit, the Carpobalsamum, expressed from the ripe fruit, and the Xylobal- 

 samum, derived from the small twigs ; but these names are differently ap- 

 plied by Lemery and other pharmaceutical writers of his day, designating by 

 the first the balsam itself, by the second the dried fruits, and by the latter the 

 twigs and branches. 



At present the Balsam of Gilead or Mecca, as it is sometimes called, is 

 procured from Arabia, and principally, according to Milburn, between Mecca 

 and Medina. The best kind is said to exude naturally, but inferior qualities 

 are obtained by boiling the branches. It is at first turbid, and white, of a 

 strong, pungent, agreeablearomatic smell, and slightly bitter,acrid taste. When 

 it is kept, it becomes thin, limpid, of a greenish hue, and afterwards yellow. 

 As may be supposed, it is very liable to adulteration from its scarcity and 

 high price. It was formerly supposed that an infallible criterion of its purity 

 was, that when dropped on water, it formed a thin pellicle, which could be 

 taken up, unbroken, with the point of a needle, but this, as is well known, 

 will take place with any consistent balsam. Bruce states, the true article, 

 when dropped on woollen cloth, may be washed off by simple water. Ac- 

 cording to an analysis of it by Trommsdorff, it consists of volatile oil, a soft 

 resin insoluble in alcohol, and a hard resin soluble in that vehicle. 



This balsam is in much estimation among the Asiatic nations, especially 

 the Turks and Arabs, both as a medicine and perfume, and it is also employed 

 as a cosmetic of undoubted efficacy in the harems, but from all that can be 

 gathered, it possesses no virtues beyond those of the other turpentines, its 

 excessive price being probably one great reason for the esteem it enjoys. In 

 Europe, and this country, the drug known under the name of Balsam of 

 Gilead, is the product of a native tree, the Abies balsamca, which, if not quite 

 as fragrant, is equally efficacious as a medical agent. As to a quack remedy 

 in great repute in England some years since, under the name of " Solomon's 

 cordial balm of Gilead," it did not contain a drop of the balsam, but is said to 

 have been a tincture of cardamoms with cantharides. 



A species of this genus is mentioned by Mr. Griffith, {Ann. Nat. Hist. x. 

 194,) as being extensively cultivated in Afghanistan, on account of its stimu- 

 lant and aromatic properties. The gum called Bdellium, so long known in 

 medicine, but respecting whose origin so much uncertainty exists, and which 

 has been attributed to so many different sources, is in part derived from one 

 or more species of Balsamodendron ; that observed by Adanson, in Senegal, 

 and which he says is called Niouttout by the natives, is the B. africanum, 

 whilst that from India, which is probably the kind known to the ancients, is 

 said to be furnished by the B. Roxburghii. 



Boswellia. — Roxburgh, 

 Flowers bisexual. Calyx small, inferior, persistent, five-toothed. Petals five. Stamens 



