COLLECTION  OF  MASTIC  AT  CHIOS. 
61 
troublesome  expensive  apparatus,  and  was  not  devoid  of  dan- 
ger. Upon  this  scale,  and  with  the  best  management  that  the 
writer's  experience  could  suggest,  the  yield  is  by  volume  '684  per 
cent,  of  the  alcohol  or  by  weight  •884  per  cent. 
In  this  process,  as  in  all  others  where  very  large  glass  retorts 
are  used  with  much  handling,  the  larger  the  scale  of  operation 
within  certain  limits,  the  greater  the  loss.  In  the  writer's  experi- 
ence the  maximum  yield  is  obtained  in  working  the  process  with 
2i  gallon  retorts,  as  mentioned  in  a  previously  published  paper 
on  this  preparation.  But  for  a  charge  of  this  size,  the  time,  at- 
tention and  firing  are  so  nearly  the  same,  that  it  becomes  more 
economical  to  get  a  smaller  yield  at  a  smaller  expense. — Proc, 
American  Pharmaceutical  Association,  1860. 
COLLECTION  OF  MASTIC  AT  CHIOS. 
The  mastic  country,  or  rather  that  of  the  plant  which  pro- 
duces it,  the  Pistacia  Lentiscus,  is  especially  the  north  of 
Africa,  as  well  as  some  of  the  islands  of  the  Grecian  Archi- 
pelago, more  particularly  the  island  of  Chios,  which  the  Turks 
on  this  account  call  Sachis  Adassina,  that  is  to  say,  the  island 
of  mastic.  Although  this  plant  is  found  all  about  Greece  and 
the  islands  of  the  Archipelago,  and  experience  has  shown  that 
mastic  may  be  always  obtained  from  it  by  incisions,  it  is  neglect- 
ed everywhere,  however,  except  at  Chios,  from  whence  comes  in 
consequence  all  our  commercial  mastic.  The  villages  where  the 
inhabitants  devote  themselves  exclusively  to  the  collection  of 
this  resin  are  called  mastichochora,  that  is,  mastic  villages. 
The  incisions  are  made  in  the  month  of  June  with  small 
knives  especially  adapted  for  the  purpose,  and  towards  the  end 
of  August  they  collect  the  mastic,  which,  having  hardened  on 
the  plant,  is  readily  detached.  In  order  to  gather  it  in  a  state 
of  purity  they  spread  under  the  shrubs  some  kind  of  cloth,  as 
also  some  days  before  they  take  care  to  clean  the  soil,  in  order 
that  it  may  not  become  attached  to  sand  or  other  earthy  impuri- 
ties. 
The  smallest  mastic,  which  is  white  and  transparent,  is  re- 
served for  the  seraglio  of  the  Sultan,  and  for  the  ladies  of  the 
