252 THE HYSSOP OF THE ANCIENTS. 
materials we should supply to them in order to meet the demands of plants, must be 
considered in a state of infancy. 
If we now revert to the composition of sea- water, as stated in a recent article, it 
perhaps will appear that all the saline matters traceable in native earths have been 
originally derived from the waters of the ocean. In them we find potassa, soda, 
lime, and magnesia, in combination with the sulphuric and hydrochloric acids. The 
phosphorescence of decaying fish points to the origin of phosphorus, as does also 
the presence of much phosphoric acid in combination with ammonia, soda, potassa, 
and magnesia, in the best guano. The sea has for an unknown period covered the 
entire surface of the globe ; therefore without appealing to the strong evidences 
offered by geology, it may, without presumption, be inferred that the sea was the 
original depositor of all those chemical inorganic substances which have formed the 
subject of this article. Offering these suggestions with a view to excite inquiry and 
research, we leave them to the serious reflexion of our philosophical friends, and 
thus bring our labours of the present year to a close. 
THE HYSSOP OF THE ANCIENTS. 
Hyssop or Ezob, appears to have been a plant well-known to the ancients, and 
much esteemed by them for medicinal purposes, but to what species the name was 
applied, or even to what genus it is referable, is not easy to determine. 
The vulgar opinion has generally been, that the bitter herb grown in our 
gardens under that name, and used by us for domestic purposes, is identical with 
the Ezob of the ancients : our plant, however, is a native of the south of Europe, 
and although one variety, the H. orientalis, grows naturally on Caucasus, and other 
parts of Central Asia, yet it has never, as far as we know, been discovered in a wild 
state either in Lower Egypt, the Desert of Sinai, Syria, the neighbourhood of Jeru- 
salem, or any of the adjacent countries ; whilst the true Ezob must, from the uses 
to which it was applied by the Jews, have been found naturally in all those localities. 
This, in connection with other reasons, has led scientific men to the unanimous 
conclusion, that the Hyssop of our gardens is a distinct plant from the Ezob of the 
ancients. 
In continuation of the above remarks we may observe, that the name Hyssop 
appears to have been derived from the Hebrew Ezob or Ezeb, signifying a holy 
herb, or a herb for purifying, and the pronunciation of it is nearly the same in all 
European, and in some Asiatic languages. 
The French call it Hysope, the Germans Der Isop, the Italians Isopo, the 
Spanish Hisopo, the Portuguese Hyssopo, the Danish Isop, the Dutch Hysop, the 
Greek vo-o-uoiros, Hyssopos, the Hebrew Ezob, Ezobh, and Ezof, and the Chaldaic 
Esofa. 
