[ 410 1 
fcriptions of the Greek phyficians will lead poflerity, as^ 
they have done ns now, into various conjectures, all oF 
them falfe, upon the queftion, what that myrrh of the 
ancients was ? 
Though the myrrh of the Troglodytes was fupe- 
rior to any Arabian, yet the Greeks perceived, that it 
was not all of equal goodnefs. pliny and Theophras- 
tus make this difference to arife from the trees being 
partly wild, partly cultivated. But this is an imagi- 
nary reafon; all the trees were wild. But it was the 
age of the tree and its health, the manner of making 
the cut or wound in it, the time of gathering the myrrh, 
and the circumftances of the climate when it was ga- 
thered, that conftantly determined, and does yet deter- 
mine, the quality of the drug. In order to have 
myrrh of the firft, or mofb perfeCt fort, the favages chufe 
a young, vigorous tree, whofe bark is without mofs, or 
any parafite-plant ; and, above the firft large branches, 
give the tree a deep wound with an axe. The myrrh 
which flows, the firft year, through this wound, is myrrh 
of the firft growth ; and never in very great quantity. 
This operation is performed fome time after the rains 
have ceafed; thatis,Trom April to June; and the myrrh 
is produced in July and Auguft. The fap once ac- 
cuftomed to iftlie through this gafli, continues fo to do 
fpontaneoufly, at the return of every feafon: but the 
tropical rains, which are very violent, and continue fix 
months, w afti fo much dirt, and lodge fo much w^ater in 
the cut, that in the fecond year, the tree has begun to 
rot and turn foul in that pait, and the myrrh is of a fe- 
cond 
