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ON THE BALSAM TREES PRODUCING MYRRH AND BDELLIUM. 
Medica,” Lond. 1847) that the subject should be followed up by those who have the 
opportunity of examining the flowers, and collecting the gum. 
The tree now under consideration is abundant on rocky ground in Scinde, about Kur- 
rachee, Garrah, Tattah, Jerrok, &c. — in short, wherever the limestone formation extends. 
It is therefore, most probably, very common in Beloochistan, and up the Persian Gulf, 
and is one of the plants connecting the Syrian and Indian Floras. This shrub is called 
Googul or Guggar, by the Hill Beloochees, who indeed do not know it by the name of 
Mukul. It yields the gum-resin, Googul, which they collect and bring to the bazaars of 
Hydrabad and Kurrachee, where it sells at the rate of two rupees the maund of 80 lbs. 
At Bombay its tariff valuation is two rupees the maund. It is collected in the cold 
season by making incisions with a knife in the tree, and letting the resin fall on the 
ground. Hence the dirty and impure state in which it is found in the shops. I have 
obtained it from September to February, and have found it exude in large tears, from a 
clean incision of the colour, consistence, and opacity of “ pus laudabile .” My informants 
say, that from half to a whole seer, is yielded by a single tree. It is esteemed cordial and 
stimulant. It hardens and turns brownish-black very slowly. Made up into a cake with 
bajree flour, it is commonly given to horses and cattle when they have a cold. The 
dealers from Cabool have a custom of administering it to their horses in the cold season, 
thinking that it keeps them in health and condition. 
The fruit and young shoots are applied to a similar purpose. The gum is made into a 
plaster, and used to discuss tumours and boils, and is regarded as efficacious in expelling 
the guinea- worm, both taken internally and applied to the tumour. It is extensively employed 
by the Hindoos as incense for burning in their temples, although its smell is by no means 
agreeable. It is also much prized by builders, who mix it with the mortar and plaster 
used in the construction of houses of a somewhat superior description, where durability is 
an object. The Googul is boiled in water for a considerable time, when its spirit (as they 
phrase it) is communicated to the water, and the dregs are thrown away. This solution of 
the gummy part, which, according to Newman’s Analysis, should be six drachms two 
scruples in every ounce, is mixed with lime to prevent it from crumbling, and splitting. 
The Googul water is sometimes washed over the walls by itself. 
In Puryani (Syriac), Miikld; in Rumi (Greek), Budliyun ; in Arabic, Kafr (Bitumen or 
Pitch, called also Kafr ul Ya-hud, or Jew’s Pitch), and Kawar ; in Persian, But Tahudan 
(the Jew’s perfume, because that people use it in fumigation) ; in Hindostanee, Gugal. 
It is the gum of a large tree, about the size of the Kundur ( Olibanum ), growing 
plentifully upon the shores of the sea of Uman (the sea on the E. coast of Arabia), and 
in Sanjar (Khorasan?), and India. 
Its general characteristic is bitterness, and it is of many kinds, as e. g. 1st Mukl-i-arzak 
(bluish Bdellium), in colour reddish and bitter ; 2nd, Mukl-el-Ya-hud (Jew’s Bdellium), of 
a yellowish tinge ; 3rd, Mukl-i-sakalbi, which is clouded, impure, black, and soft ; 4th, 
Mukl-i-Arabi (Arabian Bdellium), which grows in Yemen, and is of the colour of the 
Badanjan (ripe fruit of the Egg-plant, i. e. greenish-black). The best kind is clear, pure, 
and readily dissolves in water. It must be unmixed ’with wood, straws, sand, earth, or 
such matters. Its properties last for twenty years. When old, its bitterness increases ; 
and the older it is the darker it becomes, exchanging its softness for dryness and hardness, 
especially the Arabic, as they mix it with myrrh. 
My friend, assistant-surgeon Carter, showed me a fine specimen of the “ Mukul ” gum 
collected by him on the southern coast of Arabia, together with numerous other gums, all 
accompanied by admirable drawings of the trees producing them. There is, therefore, 
some error in the statement of Dr. Malcolmson (Royle’s “Materia Medica”), that Bdellium 
is not produced in Arabia ; moreover, the “ Mukul ” and the tree producing it, are, from 
Dr. Carter’s specimens, identical with the Scinde Googul and its tree, as might be expected 
from the great similarity between the vegetation of the rocky part of Scinde and that of 
Arabia. The range of our Googul Tree is, therefore, Arabia (Dr. Carter), and, according to 
my own observations, in rocky ground throughout Scinde, at Deesa in Marwar, and lately 
in Beloochistan Proper ; it flowers in March and April, and the leaves and young shoots 
