THE BALM OR BALSAM OF GILEAD OF THE ANCIENTS. 
69 
was by them considered a specific for almost every disease. Administered in doses 
of about three grains, it was said to strengthen weak stomachs ; was deemed an 
excellent remedy for ulcers, and every description of wounds ; being sudorific, was 
used in rheumatism ; as an aromatic and stimulant, it was administered in all nervous 
and pulmonic complaints ; and was esteemed as an antidote to the bites of poisonous 
reptiles. In Egypt, at this day, it is valued as a medicine of no ordinary character. 
In Turkey, the ladies use it as an odoriferous ointment, and also as a cosmetic. 
Lady Mary Montagu mentions the extensive adulterations which this valuable drug 
undergoes, and states that, even in Constantinople, it is very difficult to obtain it in 
a pure state. Whilst resident in that city " she applied some to her face, which in 
consequence became swelled and inflamed, and continued so during three days ; but 
on this subsiding, her complexion was much improved by the operation, and to this 
is attributed the fine bloom for which the Eastern ladies are so celebrated." 
Notwithstanding the celebrity of this gum both in ancient and modern days, 
neither the Arabian physicians nor early writers appear to have been well acquainted 
with the origin of the plants from which it was obtained. The article was supposed 
by many to be solely a product of Judea, and as from the neighbourhood of Gilead 
in that country, the merchants chiefly brought their supplies into Egypt, it obtained 
the name of Balm or Balsam of Gilead. 
From sacred history we learn that a little more than 600 years after the flood, 
or about 1730 years before the Christian era, the Ishmaelites and Arabian merchants, 
trafficking with spices and various Indian commodities to Egypt, carried this article 
also along with them. 
Amongst the ancients, Theophrastus and Dioscorides called the plant Balsamum, 
or Balsam Tree. It is by them stated to be a native of Abyssinia, and this testimony 
has in modern times been confirmed by Bruce, who, in his " Travels," states that 
" it grows plentifully amongst the Myrrh trees behind Azab, all along the coast to 
the Straits of Babelmandel." 
Niebuhr, in his book of travels, also asserts the same. Strabo mentions the 
locality of the plant particularly, and is probably the only one of the ancients who 
has done so. His words are, " Near to this is the most happy land of the Sabseans, 
where grows the Myrrh, Frankincense, and Cinnamon; and on the coast about Saba 
the Balsam also is plentiful." Other writers state it to be found growing plentifully 
about a day's journey from the Red Sea on the Asiatic side. Gerlach relates that 
the tree grows near Bederhunim, a village between Mecca and Medina, in a sandy 
rocky soil, confined to a track about a mile in length. From this locality it no doubt 
received the name of Balsam of Mecca. It is also called Beshan, or as Bruce terms 
it, Balessan. 
Wherever the plant is originally a native, it seems to have been transplanted at an 
early age into the south of Arabia Felix ; and, from the above accounts, we might 
judge that one of the first plantations which succeeded, was at Petra, the ancient 
metropolis of Arabia, now only a village, and called Beden or Bederthunein. After- 
wards it was conveyed into Palestine, where its gum received the name of Balsamum 
