'194! /" A CATALOGUE OF INDIAN - 



Tjbtroleum. Mini teU^) H. Neft, Arab. 



This mineral oil is imported from the Burma country. See an account 

 of the Petroleum wells near Riima?ighong, by Captain Cox, in the 6tk 

 Vol. of the As. Res. 



The oil is met with, in the bazar, of very different degrees of purity; 

 sometimes perfectly limpid and thin; at other times of a dark brown co- 

 lour, and of the consistence of syrup. The first sort only should be used 

 in medicine. It has a strong, penetrating, not disagreeable smell, and a 

 pungent, acrid taste. It is very generally employed by the native prac- 

 titioners, externally, as a stimulant in paralytic complaints, and in chro- 

 nic rheumatism. In this last disease I can, from my own experience, re- 

 commend it as an efficacious remedy ; having found much greater benefit 

 from it, than from the more costly Cajeput oil, wliich I had previously 

 used. 

 Amber.'' Cah-^ruhaS^) H. and P. 



. , 3. ANIMAL. 

 Musk. MesM,i^) H. and P. 



(I) Mitteetel. 

 * A concrete, resinous substance, is imported from Bussora^ which passes, at the Calctdtn 

 Custom-house, and is also sold in the bazar, under the name of Cahruba or Amber ; but 

 which I found, on examination, to be real Copal, the resin so much used, in England, as a 

 varnish. This substance is used for the same purpose by the Coach-makers in Calcutta. It 

 resembles so perfectly the finest amber, in colour and texture, that the jewellers make neck- 

 laces of it, which pass for those of genuine Amber, and from which it is extremely difficult 

 to distinguish them. The Copal is, I believe, the produce of the Valeria Indica, a tree 

 "which grows on the Malabar Coast. I was favoured by Dr. Roxburgh with a specimera 

 of the resin of that tree ; and found it, both in appearance and chemical qualities, to coincide 



entirely with genuine CopaL 



(2) Kuhroohct. . <3) Mushh 



