246 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
woodcuts of this paper, Dr. Dorat has favoured me with specimens of the 
Balsam-tree, Myroxylon Pereirx Kl.; and as I have also received it from three 
other independent collectors, I do not feel the least hesitation in regarding it as 
the source of the whole of the Balsam of Peru of commerce. Dr. Dorat is 
himself of this opinion; and the late Mr. Sutton Hayes who was an excellent 
botanical observer, and who gathered specimens of the tree at Cuisnagua and in 
other places, assured me that so far as he knew, no other species of Myroxylon 
occurs on the Balsam Coast or in Guatemala. 
Although there is some evidence to show that the balsamic exudations of one 
or two other species of Myroxylon or Myrospermum were formerly collected in 
other parts of tropical America and sent to Europe as Balsam of Peru , it is 
hardly on that account the less certain that for nearly three centuries the great 
bulk of the drug imported has had the same origin as that of the present day. 
At the period of the Spanish conquest, the balsam was an important production 
of the very region where it is still obtained, as is evidenced by it forming part 
of the tribute carried by the aborigines of the coast to the chiefs in the interior. 
It appears moreover, that the estimation in which it was held by the Indians 
was soon shared by their invaders; for in consequence of the representations of 
missionary ecclesiastics, Pope Pius Y. was induced to issue a bull under date 
1571, authorizing the use of the balsam produced in the country for the prepa¬ 
ration of the Holy Chrism of the Roman Catholic Church. A copy of this 
curious document is preserved among the archives of Guatemala (of which state 
Salvador was formerly a part), as well as in the Vatican at Rome.* As to the 
balsam having acquired the name of Peru, a country so remote from its place 
of production, the circumstance is intelligible when we know that during the 
early period of the Spanish dominion, the productions of Central America were 
shipped to Callao, the port of Lima, the capital of Peru, and great emporium 
of its trade, and thence transmitted to Spain. From this cause the drug ac¬ 
quired the name of the country from which it was shipped to Europe, exactly 
in the same manner as Turkey Gum Arabic, Turkey Myrrh, East India Rhubarb, 
Bombay Senna, etc. have acquired and still bear designations very little indica¬ 
tive of their real origin. In proof of this I may quote an interesting passage 
occurring in De la Martiniere’s Dictionnaire Geographique (Paris, 1768), where 
under the head Callao , the author enumerating its imports, mentions as coming 
from Sonsonate, Realejo and Guatemala, the Balsam which bears the name of 
Peru , but which, says he, comes in reality almost entirely from Guatemala. He 
adds that there are two kinds of it, the white and the brown , the latter being 
the more esteemed.f 
Alcedo, author of a Geographical Dictionary published at Madrid in 178G-9, 
writing of Sonsonate, observes that it includes in its jurisdiction the celebrated 
Balsam Coast , where is produced the richest balsam, which in all parts is held 
in particular estimation.^ He further mentions that the only commercial port 
* Vide also PJiarm. Journ. and Trans, vol. ii. (1861) p. 446. 
t • • • Dans la meme rue du cote du nord, sont les magasins des marcliandises quo 
les vaisseaux Espagnols apportent du Chili, du Perou et du Mexique. 
Du Chili viennent les cordages, les cuirs, les suits . . . 
Du Mexique, comme de Sonsonate , Realejo, Guatemala, de la bray et du gaudron qui 
n’est bon que pour le bois, parce qu'il brule les cordages; des bois pour les teintures, du 
souffre et du baume qui porte le nom de Perou, mais qui vient effectivement presque tout 
de Guatemala. II y en ade deuxsortes, de blanc et de brun ; ce dernier estplus estime, on 
le met dans des cocos quand il a la consistance de la bray, mais communement il vient dans 
des pots de terre en liqueur, alors il est sujet a etre falsifie, et mele d’huile pour en 
augmenter la quantite.”—De la Martiniere, Dictionnaire Geographique, (Paris, 1768, fol.) 
Tome 2, p. 48. 
+ “ Comprehende en su jurisdiccion la celebrada Costa del Balsamo, de donde se saca el 
mas rico que se conoce, y tiene particular estimacion en todas partes.”— Diccionario Geo- 
yrdfco-Historico de las Indias Occidentales 6 America, tomo iv. (1788) p. 577. 
