258 



OBSERVATIONS ON HIMALAYAN CONIFERS. 



" Lignum ejus concisum furnis undique igni extra circumdate 

 fervet. Primus Sudor aquae modo fluit canali ; hoc in Syria 

 cedrium vocatur :" and " Cedrus magna, quam cedrelaten vocant, 

 dat picem quae cedria vocatur, dentium doloribus utilissimum. 

 Frangit enim eos et extrahit (the pains or the teeth ?) : dolores 

 sedat,*" Our modern Creosote is therefore but an old remedy 

 revised. Pliny also affirms that Cedria, and especially its oil, was 

 useful in elephantiasis and similar maladies. Dr. Walsh (on Coins, 

 Medals, and Gems, p. 67) tells us that "the elephantiasis Mas 

 at this period (the reign of Gordian) a very loathsome and mortal 

 distemper. It was so called because the limbs swelled into 

 shapeless masses, divided by contracted rings, and the body, 

 but particularly the face, was covered with blotches and papulae 

 like those of the elephant. Quintus Serenus, the Basilidian 

 physician, who describes the disease, also prescribes the cure, 

 which he says is the juice of the bark of the cedar tree. 



" Est elephas morbus tristi quoque nomine dims, 

 Non solam turpant infandis ora papillis, 

 Sed cita precipitans funesto fata veneno ; 

 Hinc erit adversus cedri de cortice succus, 

 Varios sic ungere frontes, 

 Sic faciam, sic redde salutem." 



The Creosote of Pliny was probably more potent in tooth-ache 

 than the abracadabra of the Gnostic physician in tertian ague; 

 but since each attests the vis medicatrix cedri, our Kelon oil is 

 worth a trial in the cases of elephantiasis, leprosy, &c, unfor- 

 tunately so numerous in India. 



The association of Atys, the Phrygian Bacchus, with the pine 

 tree, alluded to at p. 79, is not yet extinct. Our proverb " good 

 wine needs no bush," is explained by the Continental practice, 

 obsolete in England, of suspending a bush, commonly the head 

 of a young pine, over the door of the vintner's shop. In Elmes' 

 Dictionary of the Fine Arts, we are told that the Greeks deco- 

 rated their Pans, bacchanals, &c, with pine leaves; and that on 

 several bassi relievi, the pine tree appears growing near the 



* Dr. Hoffmeister, p. 367, describes the method of making cedar oil in 

 Koonawur : it is also obtained from the cones. " Resinous cedar wood, 

 cleft into many small pieces, is carefully squeezed into a new round pot, in 

 such a manner that nothing can fall out when the pot is whirled round and 

 round. It is then turned upside down over a copper bowl set in a little 

 pit, every opening being filled up with small stones and moss. Round 

 about the pot, a heap of billets of wood is piled up so high as entirely to 

 cover it, and kept burning for fully two hours. Next morning the little pit 

 is opened, and the copper vessel removed, in which the cedar oil is found 

 to have gathered in the shape of a thin liquid substance resembling 

 tar. * * * It is used as a medicine, internally and externally, in cases of 

 intestinal disease and in eruptions of the skin." 



