JULY — SErT. 1857.] 
Wood Oil. 
283 
On Wood Oil 
The Balsam obtained from various trees of [the order DiriE- 
EOCAEPECE. 
The value and importance of this article of Indian produce in- 
vests all information existing on the subject with much local in- 
terest. 
Up to a recent period it appears to have been little known in the 
Home market at least as faiPas regards its medicinal properties. 
In 1854 Mr. Q!nAELES Lowe, Assistant in the Royal Institution, 
Manchester brougl)^ it to the notice of the Pharmaceutical Society, 
under the description of " A new variety of Balsam of CopaihcC in 
the following terms ; 
" All organic fluid was lately placed in my hands by Mr. Grace Calvert 
for examination, which he had received from an oil merchant of this city, 
who stated that all he knew of the substance was, that it was obtained by 
the incision of a certain tree growing on the coast of India. From the 
characters it presents I have ascertained it to be a balsam of copaiba, but 
as it differs in some of its properties from other balsams that I have ex- 
amined, I forward you the following notice, in hopes that it may prove 
interesting to.some of your numerous readers. 
In appearance this balsam of copaiba is dark coloured and turbid. Its 
turbidity is due to a greenish resinous matter, held in suspension, which 
is, however, easUy separable, either by filtration or deposition, leaving a 
brown transparent liquid of sp. gr. 0.970. When the latter fluid is sub- 
mitted to a careful distillation it yields : — 
Essential oil 65 per cent. 
Resin 34 „ 
Acetic acid and water 1 „ 
100 
I find that the essential oil in its various reactions with^potassium, 
iodine, nitric acid, &c., and moreover in taste, exactly corresponds with 
those presented by pure essence of copaiba. The resin left by distillation 
of the balsam, either with or without water, is, if deprived of the whole of 
the essential oil, extremely hard. Its entire solubility in coal najilitha 
proves the absence of any of the soft resin which exists in most of the 
