232 
ON  SOME  PANAMA  DRUGS. 
that  the  Aniba  of  Aublet,  or  Cedrota  of  Schreber,  the  affinity  of 
which  is  unknown,  really  produces  it. 
Redwood's  supplement  to  the  Pharmacopoeia  follows  the  fore- 
going statement. 
The  oldest  reference  to  the  drug  in  question  which  I  have 
found  in  works  that  I  could  consult,  is  in  Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
nica,  published  in  1796,  as  follows  :  Caranna  or  Karanna,  a 
very  scarce  gum  which  comes  from  New  Spain  ;  it  is  said  to 
possess  many  extraordinary  medical  virtues,  but  the  present 
practice  takes  no  notice  of  it. 
The  Cyclopaedia,  &c.,  by  Abraham  Rees,  published  in  Phila- 
delphia (time  ?),  has  a  more  extended  notice,  which  appears  to 
have  been  compiled  from  some  older  works  on  Materia  Medica 
and  the  accounts  of  travellers  ;  we  select  the  following  passages  : 
Caranna,  brought  from  some  parts  of  the  West  Indies,  as  Car- 
thagena  and  New  Spain.  The  trees  from  which  it  runs  are  like 
the  palm  tree.  When  it  is  fresh  it  is  white,  but  as  it  grows 
stale  it  becomes  greyish  inclining  to  green,  in  which  condition  it 
is  sent  to  Europe,  where  the  white  is  seldom  to  be  met  with.  It 
is  brought  in  lumps  wrapped  up  in  leaves.  To  be  of  the  best 
quality  it  must  be  soft,  of  a  pleasant  aromatic  smell  and  , as  white 
as  snow.  ^ 
I  have  not  been  able  to  procure  Dr.  Hancock's  paper,  which 
is  published  in  the  Edinburgh  Philosophical  Journal  1829,  Oct., 
233,  so  that  I  cannot  say  upon  what  grounds  he  bases  his  as- 
sertions of  the  origin  of  caranna ;  nor  the  account  of  Monardes, 
quoted  by  Guibourt,  from  which  it  appears  to  have  been  first 
exported  to  Europe  about  the  year  1560.  It  comes  from  the 
neighborhood  of  Carthagena  or  Nom-de-Jesus,  has  the  color  and 
odor  of  tacamahac,  but  the  latter  is  stronger ;  is  shining,  olea- 
ginous and  tenacious. 
Guibourt,  in  Histoire  Naturelle  des  Drogues  simples,  Paris, 
1850,  III,  page  487,  states  that  caranna  is  said  to  come  from  a 
Mexican  tree  which  Hernandez  calls  arbor  insanise,  caragna 
iiuncupata,  and  that  it  comes  in  masses  enveloped  in  the  leaves 
of  a  reed.  Guibourt  has  not  seen  any  authentic  specimens  of 
caranna,  but  describes  three  samples  under  that  name  in  his  pos- 
session :  _^lst,  irregular  pieces  of  the  size  of  a  nut,  hard,  greyish 
