202 
COPAIFERA OFFICINALIS. 
crude and watery. The markets are chiefly supplied with this bal- 
sam from the Brazils j it comes to this country in casks, containing 
from one to tv o hundred weight of the balsam. 
Sensible and Chemical Properties, &c. Copaiba balsam, 
when good and unadulterated,* has an agreeable smell, and a 
bitterish pungent taste; it is of a pale golden yellowish colour, 
perfectly transparent, and when fresh is of the consistence of oil ; it 
is said to become solid, dry and brittle, if exposed with an extended 
surface for a considerable length of time. It is insoluble in water, 
but entirely so in rectified spirit, especially if the menstruum be pre- 
viously alkalized, when the solution has a very fragrant smell ; it is 
also soluble in ether. The pure alkalies form with it saponaceous 
compounds, which are soluble in water, forming opaque milky mix- 
tures. It also readily combines with the expressed oils, forming 
with them clear transparent mixtures.f United with sulphuric acid, 
it is converted into a brown bituminous mixture, which gives out a 
strong odour of sulphur. Nitric acid partially dissolves it, and ren- 
ders it brown, and when exposed to a strong heat, the acid is decom- 
posed, and nitrous fumes are copiously emitted. The acetic and 
muriatic acids scarcely affect it ; when distilled with water, it yields 
nearly half its weight of a limpid essential oil ; in a strong heat, 
without addition, it yields an empyreumatic brown red oil, an acidu- 
lous water, carbonic acid gas, and olefiantgas, but no benzoic acid; 
it is therefore not a balsam, but a turpentine, a combination of 
volatile oil and resin. 
Medical Properties and Uses. This balsam is diuretic, 
stimulant and gently purgative; in small doses it proves tonic. 
From its stimulating the urethra, it has been successfully used in 
gleets, and it is supposed to clean and heal ulcerations in the urinary 
passages. It has also been found very eflicacious in fluor albus, 
and in sanious discbarges from the uterus, particularly in those 
which frequently occur on the cessation of the catamenia. In hze- 
morrhoidal affections it affords considerable relief, in doses of twenty 
or thirty drops twice a day. It has been recommended in pulmonary 
* We are told by Lewis, (Mat. Med. p. 132) that a tbick, whitish, and almost 
opaqne balsam, with a quantity of tarbid watery liquor at the bottom, is sometimes 
found in the shops. 
t We believe the Copaiba balsam which is met with in the retail shops, is very 
commonly adulterated with almond or olive oil. We are told by Buckolis, that if 
Copaiba balsam does not dissolve entirely in a mixture of four parts of alcohol and one 
of sulphuric ether, its adulteration may be inferred. 
