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THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. LII 



products are found in the British Pharmacopoeia as as- 

 tringent ointments and in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia, 1916, 

 ninth revision, the Aleppo gall still appears as the source 

 of tannic acid and as the principal ingredient in the prep- 

 aration Unguentum gallce. It is now used only externally. 



Ink.— In the manufacture of ink the Aleppo gall was 

 long considered as a necessary ingredient, especially 

 where a durable ink was required, as in court records. 

 In some places the law required that records be made 

 with ink compounded of gall-nuts. 



This use of the gall is not of such ancient origin as the 

 medical use, for Pliny, who quotes the older authorities 

 on other matters, has made mention only of the ink com- 

 pounded of lampblack, which was used also by the 

 Chinese. Hoefer in his "Histoire de la Chimie" spoke 

 of an ink used in the third and fourth centuries a.d., com- 

 pounded of acid and metal solution but failed to say that 

 this acid was obtained from gall-nuts. The ink made 

 from gall apple was, however, well known to the monks 

 of the ninth and tenth centuries, who used it in copying 

 their manuscripts. An interesting reference to the ink 

 made from gall-nuts occurs in ScheffePs "Ekkehard," a 

 romance of the tenth century, in which the monk Ekkehard 

 says ". . . all ink comes from gall apples and all gall 

 apples from a wicked wasp's sting." Of course, this is 

 of interest only if the knowledge of the origin of the gall 

 apple were part of the experience of the tenth-century 

 monk and not supplied from the knowledge of the nine- 

 teenth-century author. As the search to clear up this 

 point would be long and arduous and the result of no real 

 value it has not been made. 



From the ninth century down to the present day, gall- 

 nuts have been included in practically every good ink 

 recipe for black writing and record inks. The Aleppo 

 gall is considered as the best for ink-making, but other 

 important ones are the Morea gall, the Smyrna gall, Mar- 

 mora gall and Istrian gall, and other good quality galls 



