MANUFACTURE  OF  BALSAM  OF  PERU. 
145 
ON  THE  MANUFACTURE  OF  BALSAM  OF  PERU. 
By  Daniel  Hanbury,  F.  L.  S.* 
It  is  now  thirteen  years  since  the  late  Dr.  Pereira  laid  before 
the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain  some  account  of 
the  process  by  which  the  liquid  known  as  Balsam  of  Peru,  is 
prepared  in  the  State  of  Salvador  in  Central  America,  and  at 
the  same  time  described,  so  far  as  the  imperfect  materials  at  his 
disposal  would  allow,  the  tree  from  which  the  Balsam  is  ob- 
tained. Subsequently  to  this,  namely  in  the  year  1860,  Dr. 
Charles  Dorat  of  Sonsonate  in  the  State  of  Salvador  commu- 
nicated to  the  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  a  notice  of  the 
manufacture  of  Balsam  of  Peru  completely  confirmatory  of  that 
given  by  Dr.  Pereira,  which  account  was  republished  in  the 
Pharmaceutical  Journal, 
The  Balsam-tree,  which  Pereira  at  first  regarded  as  Myroxy- 
lon  pubescens  HBK,  was  afterwards  called  by  him  provision- 
ally (until  materials  for  a  complete  botanical  description  should 
be  obtained)  the  Myrospermum  of  Sonsonate.  Upon  the  death 
of  Pereira,  the  late  Dr.  Royle  drew  up  in  botanical  terms  a 
description  of  the  tree,  upon  which  he  conferred  the  name  of 
Myrospermum  Pereiroe,  which  in  1857  was  changed  by  Klotzsch 
of  Berlin  to  Myroxylon  Pereira?,  he  maintaining  the  distinct- 
ness of  the  two  genera  Myrospermum  and  Myroxylon\. 
The  question  of  the  origin  of  Balsam  of  Peru  having  been 
thus  elucidated,  there  may  seem  little  reason  for  again  bring- 
ing it  before  the  Society  ;  but  having  received  within  the  last 
fortnight,  through  the  kindness  of  Dr.  C.  Dorat,  somewhat  am- 
pler information  upon  certain  points,  accompanied  by  some  ex- 
cellent original  sketches  representing  the  collection  of  the  bal- 
sam at  Juisnagua,  near  Sonsonate,  I  think  the  subject  suffi- 
ciently interesting  and  important  to  deserve  further  attention. 
I  am  the  more  strongly  of  this  opinion  because  I  find  that  con- 
tinental pharmacologists  are  by  no  means  agreed  as  to  the 
botanical  origin  and  place  of  production  of  the  balsam,  or  even 
as  to  the  mode  of  its  manufacture,  one  of  the  most  recent  wri- 
*  Communicated  by  the  author. — Ed,  Am.  Ph.  Jour. 
f  Bonplandia,  15  Sept.  1857,  p.  274. 
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