CEDRUS LIBANI 
45 
Mussenbrack, and Hassenfratz, respectively at 29 lbs. 4 oz., 42 lbs. 14 oz., and 57 lbs. ; but these results 
are obviously, from their disparity, arrived at by experiments on green wood, and are of course of no value. 
The real specific gravity is said to be 6.13. 
The bark is available for tanning, and an analysis made by Professor Chevreuil makes its astringent 
properties in comparison with those of the Oak as 12.75 to 19-75, that is, as about 1 to 3. On this point we 
cannot speak from personal knowledge. We have, however, little doubt that the idea of the Cedar bark 
being suitable for tanning, originated in the supposition that the Cedar is most nearly allied to the Larch, 
the bark of which is applied to that purpose. But, as already explained, that the nearest ally to the Cedar 
is not the Larch, but the Silver Fir, we should consequently not expect its bark to have tanning properties 
in any greater degree than the Silver Fir. Probably all the Abietincz , or, for that matter, all the Conifers, 
have a certain amount of astringency in their bark ; while some of them, such as the Larch and the 
Wellingtonia {Sequoia), have it in a more remarkable degree than others. 
The resin of the Cedar is not so abundant as that of many other Conifers. It besmirches the cones, 
and flows from wounds in the bark, but chiefly abounds in the seeds. Professor Chevreuil found 41 per 
cent, of resin in the seeds of the Cedar, while he got only 21 per cent, in those of Pinus Cembra, 24 per 
cent, in those of P. Pinaster, and 9^ per cent, in P. Pinea; but there is no common basis of com¬ 
parison between the Cedar and these species. The seeds of all the Silver Firs overflow with odoriferous 
resin, while the seeds of Pines are as free from resin almost as nuts, which they resemble. The resin is 
put to no use in modern days, but in ancient times the Egyptians, who were far advanced in many of the arts, 
applied it to various purposes. According to Vitruvius, they used it as one of the ingredients for embalm¬ 
ing their mummies; and they rubbed it over the leaves of Papyrus and other objects, to preserve them 
from the attacks of insects. The Romans adopted this prescription, or something analogous to it, which 
they called Cedria. The books of Numa, which were found uninjured in his tomb 500 years after that 
monarch’s death, had been steeped in or rubbed with it to preserve them from insects. The details of the 
manufacture have not come down to us; but Dr. Hoffmeister gives the following account of the process 
as applied to the Deodar at the present day in Koonawur, in the Himmalayahs:— 
“ Resinous Cedar wood (or the cones) cleft into many small pieces is carefully squeezed into a new round pot, in such a manner that 
nothing can fall out when the pot is whirled round and round. It is then turned upside down over a copper bowl set in a little pit, every opening 
being filled up with small stones and moss. Round about the pot a heap of billets of wood is piled up so high as entirely to cover it and kept 
burning for fully two hours. Next morning the little pot is opened, and the copper vessel removed, in which the cedar oil is found to have 
gathered in the shape of a thin liquid substance resembling tar. . . . It is used as a medicine internally and externally in cases of intestinal 
disease, and in eruptions of the skin.”—Hoffmeister’s “Travels in Ceylon and Continental India,” 1848, p. 367. 
We read in Pliny, Dioscorides, and Scribonius Largus, that it was used for curing the toothache. 
We may consequently be pretty sure that it was a preparation similar to creosote, whose antiseptic 
properties it seems to have possessed. There is nothing new under the sun. 
M. Pomet gives the following account of the properties which the druggists of last century supposed 
it to possess :— 
“ The Cedar of Lebanon is a tree which grows to a prodigious size, and of a pyramidal figure, whose branches are adorned with little 
narrow green leaves, and the fruit like our pine-apples. It is from the trunk and the large branches of this tree that there flows, during the 
great heats, without any incision, a sort of white resin, very clear and transparent, which we call Cedar gum, of which the largest trees yield not 
less than six ounces a-day. Here are likewise, during the hot season, little bladders made by the scorching of the sun, which, being pierced, 
afford a clear white liquor, like water, of a strong penetrating smell, and is of the turpentine kind; and when the tree ceases to produce any 
more of that, being cut, there flows an unctuous matter, which, drying as it runs down the tree, is what we call resin of Cedar, which is very 
rare in France, as well as the other productions of this tree. This resin is of a very fine yellow, bright and transparent, and of a very 
grateful odour. 
“ The true oil of Cedar is admirable for curing tetters and scabs in horses, cattle, sheep, and other beasts ; but as these sorts of oil are too 
dear, we will institute in their place clear oil of pitch, which upon that subject is called oil of Cedar, as you will find in the chapter on pitch.”— 
Pomet “On Druggs” (English Translation, p. 66, 1712). 
La Roque, in his “Voyage de Syrie et Mont Liban,” already referred to, narrates the following 
peculiarity as one of the properties of the Cedar; and feeling that this property may be difficult of belief, 
brings 
[33] M 
