April 19, 18"3.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
823 
south-west of Zeila. Harar was visited in 1855 by 
Burton, who describes it as the “ great half-way 
house” for the produce of Efat, Gurague, and the 
Galla countries. The drug arrives at the great fair of 
Berbera held in November, December, and January, 
and is bought up by the Banians of India for ship¬ 
ment to Aden and Bombay. 
Bender Mirayeh (a town about 20 miles south-west 
of Ras Filek, on the Somali coast) afford it, and that 
the drug is brought to Bender Mirayeh for sale* 
Whether it is true myrrh which is produced in 
these districts of the Somali country, or whether it is 
another kind of myrrh called by the Arabs Bisa-b6l , 
and which is chiefly consumed in India and China, is 
an open question. 
Again, it has been stated on very good authority, 
that myrrh is produced in the country lying between 
'Tajura and Slioa. Sir W. Cornwallis Harris, who was 
■chief of a mission to the latter country in 1841, found 
the myrrh-tree between Waramilli and Naga Koomi, 
that is, about 200 miles from Tajura, on the road to 
Ankober, the capital of Shoa. In an appendix to his 
narrative, he names as localities for the plant, the 
Adal desert, the jungle of the Hawash, and the bor¬ 
ders of Efat. 
It will thus be seen that four districts are asserted 
to produce myrrh, namely—1. the country about 
Ghizan, on the eastern shore of the Red Sea ; 2. the 
southern Arabian coast eastward of Aden ; 3. the 
Somali country south and west of Cape Gardafui; 
and 4. the region lying between Tajura and Shoa, 
including Harar to the south-east. 
Furthermore, there are certainly three varieties of 
myrrh which may well be derived from as many 
distinct species of myrrh-tree. 
What are required for the botanical elucidation of 
the origin of myrrh are numerous, well-preserved, 
pressed and dried specimens of the tree, which ought 
to include, in addition to foliage, the flowers and 
* f Journal of Royal Geographical Society,’ xix. (1849), 
65, 66. 
Cruttenden, who visited the Somali coast in 1843, 
and was afterwards assistant political agent at Aden, 
says myrrh is brought from the Wadi Nogal, a valley 
debouching into the Indian Ocean, south of Cape 
Gardafui, in about latitude 8° N., and from its bor¬ 
dering districts of Ogaliden, Murreyhan, and Agahora. 
He says further that the mountains at the back of 
fruits; specimens of the exudation of the tree should 
also be collected, in order that competent persons may 
pronounce whether it is true myrrh or not. Inform 
rnation as to the collection of the drug in any one of 
the localities named could not fail to be of interest. 
The myrrh-trees appear to be of low stature and 
unattractive aspect, rigid, often spiny, with scanty 
foliage, minute flowers, and small, oval, dry berries. 
GREEN IODIDE OF MERCURY.* 
BY JULES LEFORT. 
The green iodide of mercury, as hitherto prepared, 
is one of the most unsatisfactory mercurial salts in 
respect to stability. On this point the medical man 
and the pharmacist have long been in accord ; for 
many therapeutists, M. Devergief in particular, who 
have specially studied the action of this compound, 
consider it to be a medicament of doubtful value, and 
in any case to be very inferior to the red iodide. In¬ 
deed, it cannot well be otherwise, as it is known that 
the green iodide prepared by the direct action of 
iodine upon mercury, is always a mixture of the true 
mercurous iodide, a variable proportion of metallic 
mercury and sometimes of the red iodide, the colour 
varying from a dark green to a yellowish green, ac¬ 
cording to the care taken in its preparation. 
Some chemists have been so convinced of the im- 
* Paper read before the Paris Society of Pharmacy, 
March 5. 1873. From ‘L’Union Pharmaceutique,’ vol. 
xiv. p. 75. 
f ‘ Bull. Ther. Med. et Chirurg.,’ Nov. 30,1871. 
