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was a preparation of myrrh diflblved in water, it is pro- 
bable, that this unknown green kind of dioscorides 
was, like the Jiad^tCy a compofition of myrrh and fome 
other ingredient, not a fpecies of Abyffinian myrrh, 
which he could never have feen, either foft or green. 
It may be remarked, that when we buy frefli or new 
myrrh, it has always a very ftrong, rancid, oily fmell; 
and when thrown into water, globules of an oily matter 
fwim upon the furface. This greafinefs is not from the 
myrrh; it is owing to the favages ufing goats-fkins 
anointed with butter (to make them fupple) wherein to 
put their myrrh at gathering ; and in thefe fkins it re- 
mains, and is brought to market: fo that, far from its 
being a fault, as fome ignorant druggifts at Rome and 
Venice believe, it is a mark that the myrrh is frefli ga- 
thered, which is the beft quality that myrrh of the firft 
fort can have. Befides, far from hurting the myrrh, 
this oily covering mult rather at firft have been of fer- 
vice ; as it certainly imprifons and confines the volatile 
parts of new myrrh, which efcape in great quantities, to 
a very confiderable diminution in the weight. The 
piece of myrrh which I fend you, is what a fine tree, 
lefs than fifteen inches diameter in the trunk at the bot- 
tom, wounded in two places, produced at one of the 
wounds, in the year 1771. And it may be regarded as th e 
only unexceptionable and authentic evidence, in Europe, 
of what the Troglodyte myrrh was; unlefs it be thole 
pieces ftill remaining in my colle6tion, and a piece, fome- 
what fmaller than yours, which I gave to the king of 
France’s 
