JULY— SEPT. 1857.] IVood Oil. 287 
from an extensive set of experiments instituted by Dr. O'Shaughnessy, 
confirmed by trials made by other practitioners in India, that Wood Oil 
is nearly equally efficient with Copaiba, in the diseases in which that drug 
is indicated.* It may be administered as an emulsion, or in pills made up 
with magnesia. Dr. O'Shaughnessy has used the essential oil in doses of 
from 10 to 30 drops. 
From the close similarity if Wood Oil to Copaiba, a mixture of the two 
may be anticipated ; from pure Copaiba, such a mixture will probably be 
detected by a difference in its optical properties." — Pharmaceutical Jour- 
nal, XV. 321. • 
Still later " a note'^ appeared in the same serial translated from 
a paper by Mr. Tjuibourt, in the French Journal de Pharmacie 
et de Chimie for Sepfem.ber 1856, which we here reproduce ; 
" This curious Indian production, named by the English Wood Oil or 
Gurjun Balsam, has already formed the subject of two noticesf published in 
the Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions, by Messrs. Charles Lowe 
and Daniel Hanbury. 
Mr. Lowe, who knew merely that this resinous liquid is extracted in 
India from incisions ma^e in a tree, considered it Balsam of Copaiba 
rendered turbid by a greenish resin suspended in it. [He found that] the 
filtered balsam formed a brown transparent liquid, which yielded by dis- 
tillation as follows : 
Essential Oil 65 
[Hard] Resin 34 
Acetic Acid and Water I 
100 
According to Mru Lowe, the volatile oil possesses all the characters of 
that of copaiba ; and the " hard resin," which he regards as pure Copaivie 
Acid, exempt from the " soft resin" which, according to him, exists in the 
greater part of the copaiba of commerce, appears to him indicative of 
superiority as a medicine. I must acknowledge that I but Ul comprehend 
this conclusion, and that I am the less convinced of the identity of the 
hard resin with copaivie acid, since Mr. Lowe has recognized in the new 
resinous balsam the singular property of becoming solid when exposed in 
a closed vessel, to a temperature of 230*^ F. Copaiba presents no similar 
phenomenon. 
I find stated moreover this difference, viz,, that the new balsam distilled 
* Bengal Dispensatory (1842) pp. 222—224. 
t The two selections from the Pharmaceutical Journal giyen aboyc—Er. 
