APPENDIX. 23 



a baKam called that of Judca, but all thefc are counterfeits 

 or adulterations. The balfam of Judea, which I have al- 

 ready mentioned, was long ago loft, when the troubles of 

 that country withdrew the royal attention from it ; but, as 

 late as Galen's time, it not only exifted, but was growing 

 in many places of Paleftine befides Jericho, and there is no> 

 doubt but it is now totally loft there. 



When Sultan Seiim made the conqueft of Egypt and A- 

 rabia in the 1516, three pound was then the tribute order- 

 ed to be ferrt to (Jonftantinople yearly, and this proportion 

 is kept up to this day. One pound is due to the governor 

 of Cairo, one pound to the Emir Hadje who conducts the 

 pilgrims to Mecca, half a pound to the baflia of Damafcus, 

 and feveral fmaller quantities to other officers, after which, 

 the remainder is fold or farmed out to fome merchants, 

 who, to increafe the quantity, adulterate it with oil of 

 olives and wax, and feveral other mixtures, confulting only 

 the agreement of colour, without confidering the aptitude 

 in mixing ; formerly we were told it was done with art, but 

 nothing is eafier detected than this fraud now. 



It does not appear to me, that the ancients had ever {ten: 

 this plant, they defcribe it fo varioufly ; fome will have it 

 a tree, fome a fhrub, and fome a plant only ; and Profper 

 Alpinus, a modern, corroborates the errors of the ancients, 

 by faying it is a kind of vine, (viticofus). The figure he 

 has given of it is a very bad one, and leaves us entirely in 

 doubt in what clafs to place it. The defect of the plant in 

 Judea and in Egypt, and the contradiction in the defcription 

 ©f the, ancients as to its figure and refemblance, occafioned 



a doubt 



