24S BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
its vicinity. The larches certainly are there, and very interesting it is to see 
them growing truly wild on their own native mountains. 
During a visit to Brian^on in June 1857,1 made particular examination of 
the larches on the neighbouring hills, and obtained so little evidence of any¬ 
thing like saccharine exudation that I was ready to conclude the formation of 
such a substance must be of rare and exceptional occurrence. Subsequently 
to this however, M. Berthelot of Paris actually made a chemical examination 
of Brian^on Manna, and demonstrated it to contain a peculiar variety of 
sugar, which he designated Melezitose, a name derived from meleze , the Drench 
for larch. 
Here again in the country of the larch and in the very classical locality for 
the manna, it was necessary of course, to renew the previous fruitless research, 
—and my travelling companion felt equally interested in the inquiry. A 
day or two before we reached Briancon, we had examined larches at La Grave 
a few miles distant, but not a trace of saccharine exudation could we discover. 
There was a little white aphis on the leaves of several trees, just as one often 
sees upon the larch in England ; and upon examining the insect carefully, 
once could perceive a minute globule attached to one part of it. Was this 
the manna ? or had it anything to do with it F Here was a globule of some¬ 
thing, but too small to collect, or even to taste per se :—still in our despera¬ 
tion we licked the aphis-covered leaves, and fancied they had a faintly sac¬ 
charine taste. The cones certainly had an exudation, but it was turpentine 
to all intents and purposes,—fine clear drops of genuine Venice turpentine ; 
—and a botanist of Briancon assured us a day or two after, that this was the 
manna. As I could not however believe that M. Berthelot had mistaken 
turpentine for sugar, I commenced making further inquiry and fortunately 
applied to M. Turin, an intelligent pharmacien, who at once assured me that 
Briancon manna was no myth, but a saccharine substance to be actually found 
on the foliage of the larch. M. Turin stated that in the height of summer 
and in the early part of the day, the larches in the forest (or at least some of 
them,—I did not understand the remark to apply to all) were really whitened 
with the manna, as if there had been a sprinkling of snow,—a thing remarked 
the worthy pharmacien that was “ vraiment belle a voir.” M. Turin further 
added that the manna had nothing in common with turpentine, or with the 
aphis we had noticed on the leaves. In reply to my eager inquiry, if there 
■was still a chance of seeing the manna in situ, and what locality for it was 
most accessible, M. Turin directed us to the village of Chantemerle, near 
which there was a mountain abounding in larches, and added that on some of 
them it was possible we might still find the manna. Though we had engaged 
to leave Brianc^on at an earl}" hour, we determined first to make the expedi¬ 
tion suggested by M. Turin, and accordingly drove to the village of Chante¬ 
merle, near which we found larches in abundance, but manna was not equally 
obvious. A careful search however of the foliage of the trees revealed here 
and there a little tear of white sugary matter, encrusting the needle-like 
leaves. This was all the ocular evidence of manna we could obtain ; but on 
returning to the village, an old peasant whom we accidentally met, assured us 
that it was useless to search for the manna except in the cool of the morning, 
and that moreover, the season for finding it was almost over. He promised 
however to speak to the shepherds on the mountain, and obtain through them 
a little of the substance, if any could still be found. The old man kept his 
word, and through him I received at Grenoble a fortnight afterwards, a good 
specimen of the Larch Manna, a portion of which I have now the pleasure of 
exhibiting. 
Seeing my interest about the manna, the old peasant asked me if I knew 
what he called Genipi ; and on my professing ignorance, he ran home to get 
