248 PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
be also derived from other sources, and as to the precise mode in which it was pro¬ 
duced. The investigations of Mr. Hanbury, and the communication and beau¬ 
tiful drawings of Dr. Dorat, taken on the spot where it was prepared, had en¬ 
tirely removed from his mind any doubts that he might have previously entertained 
as to the mode of production of Balsam of Peru. He noticed that Dr. Dorat had 
referred to two distinct substances which were obtained from the Balsam of Peru 
plant, one a natural, greenish, resinous exudation, of which a specimen was upon 
the table, and which possessed no evident balsamic odour or taste, aud another , 
obtained after beating the bark, and described by Dr. Dorat to be of a light 
yellowish colour, and that from which the commercial black Balsam of Peru was 
prepared. He regretted that Dr. Dorat had not forwarded a specimen of the 
balsamic substance which thus exuded after the stems were beaten, before it 
was submitted to any further operations, as the changes produced in it by these 
operations would be a very interesting problem for the chemist to solve. It was 
however clear from this communication that the commercial blackish Balsam of 
Peru was a very different substance from that which first exuded from the bark 
after it was beaten. The fact that a nearly colourless balsamic substance was 
obtained by incision, and a blackish fluid balsam produced by heat from the 
Balsam of Peru plant, had been known since the time of Monardes, and ap¬ 
peared to have given rise to the erroneous notion, first stated by Ruiz, that the 
light-coloured balsam by keeping, formed the solid Balsam of Tolu , and the 
blackish liquid, Balsam of Peru. A t the present day it was well known that 
these two balsams were obtained from different plants. He hoped that Mr. 
Hanbury would be able to obtain from Dr. Dorat, and exhibit at a future 
meeting some of the unaltered light yellowish balsamic exudation to which he 
had previously referred, so that it might be chemically examined, and its 
composition compared with that of the commercial Balsam of Peru. 
NOTE ON THE HUM-RESIN OF THE BALSAM OF PERU TREE. 
BY DR. ATTFIELD. 
The naturally-exuded resin of the Myroxylon Pereirx , as furnished to me 
by Air. Hanbury, consists of 
J J ■ In 100 parts. 
Resin . 77 *4 
Gum . 17T 
Woody fibre . 1*5 
Water and a small quantity of volatile oil, about... 4-0 
The resin is an acid, its alcoholic solution feebly reddening litmus-paper, and 
is uncrystallizable. The yum is similar to that of gum arabic. The volatile oil 
is limpid, colourless, and fragrant. 
Submitted to destructive distillation the exudation yields an acid water, 
empyreumatic oils gradually darkening in colour, and a pitchy residue which 
ultimately chars to a cinder. It contains no cinnamic acid. 
This *exudation is obviously therefore a gum-resin similar, for instance, to 
that of ammoniacum, and though found on the bark of the tree yielding the 
black fluid Balsam of Peru is apparently quite distinct from the latter substance, 
the one having no apparent relation to the other. 
NEW FEATURES IN THE SUPPLl^ OF PERUVIAN BARK. 
BY JOHN ELIOT HOWARD, F.L.S. 
A considerable quantity of medicinal bark has recently been introduced into 
the London market, coining by way of Para, on the Amazons. It consists of 
