OLEUM ERIGERONTIS CANADENSIS AS A REMEDY 
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various specimens of collected resin. On the bark the resin is thickly formed in large 
irregular masses; the external appearance is of a dusky grey, but its fracture is of a 
clear light shining yellow. The tree yielding this resin, Colonel Playfair thinks, is the true 
Copal of the mainland of Zanzibar ; this is an announcement of some importance, in 
support of which we anxiously look for further confirmation. Believing, however, the 
fruits to be what Colonel Playfair sends them for, viz. the fruits of the Zanzibar Copal tree, 
there seems to be little doubt, on comparing them with specimens in the Kew Herba¬ 
rium, that they belong to Hymencea mossambicensis , Kl. Colonel Playfair says in his report 
to the Foreign Office, in answer to Earl Russell’s inquiries respecting the supply of resin, 
that the value of copal exported from Zanzibar amounted during the year 1863-4^ to 
163,353 dollars, the average price being about six pounds for one Austrian dollar. The 
sums were made up as follows:— 
Hollars. 
United Kingdom. 30,030 
British India. 50,044 
Kertch. 500 
United States.5,000 
Hamburg. 30,000 
Italy.2,339 
Total 
163,353 
If, therefore, a revenue like this is derived from the resin of this particular plant in 
Zanzibar, it would be well if Madagascar, where the plant likewise grows, could open up 
a similar traffic in the same commodity. 
Captain Burton says of tho Zanzibar Copal tree, that out of its trunk u canoes have 
been formed 60 feet long, and that a single tree has sufficed for the keelson of a biig , 
the average size, however, is about half that height, with from 5 to 6 feet girth near the 
ground.” The trunk “ is dotted with exudations of raw gum, which is found scattered in 
bits about the base.” The resin is also found in a semi-fossil state, sometimes in places 
overflowed by the high tides, or when sinking piles for huts, etc. _ _ 
Captain Burton further says that “ the East African seaboard from Ras Gomani m 
S. lat. 3°, to Ras Delgado in 10° 41' with a medium depth of 30 miles, may be called 
the Copal Coast.” 
At Zanzibar the resin is sifted and cleansed from impurities before it finds its way 
into the hands of the foreign merchants ; after this it is again cleansed by washing m 
chemical solutions of various degrees of strength, care being taken to thoroughly purify, 
but at the same time not to injure the so-called “ goose-skin,” or the impress of the 
sand. , 
All parts of the plants of the copal-yielding species of Hymencea are highly charged 
with resin, and in none is it more apparent than in the fruits of the species sent home by 
Colonel Playfair. The little warts or verrucosities upon the surface of these pods are 
lumps of clear, colourless resin, simply covered with the thin epidermis or cuticle of the 
pod. To such an extent are these pods charged with resin, that they burn freely upon 
the least approach of flame. The same property is observable in the pods of the South 
American species, Hymencea Courbaril, from the trunk of which exudes very laige 
tities of resin ;*but this pod being larger and more ligneous, and the resin distributed m 
small ducts all over the surface without penetrating the substance of the pod, does not 
burn so readily, nor is the quantity of resin so large. The outside of these pods much 
resembles in appearance the sand-fretted surface of the resin.— Gardeners’’ Chronicle. 
OLEUM ERIGERONTIS CANADENSIS AS A REMEDY IN HAEMORRHAGE, 
DIARRHOEA, AND DYSENTERY. 
BY J. W. MOORMAN, M.D., OF IIARDINSBURG, KY. 
{American Journal of the Medical Sciences , Oct. 1865.) 
“ This medicine ” writes Dr. Moorman, “ deserves to be ranked among the best re¬ 
medies in all forms of hemorrhage, and in some forms of diarrhoea With a somewhat 
extended knowledge of its effects in such cases m private practice, I cannot call to mind 
' VOL. VII. 2 * 
