150 
MANUFACTURE   OF  BALSAM  OF  PERU. 
with  whose  names  I  have  not  become  acquainted.  The  Indian  name  of 
he  balsam  is  Hoo  shi-it,  or  Oo  sheet;  in  Spanish  it  is  called  Balsamo 
negro." 
In  addition  to  the  sketches  here  referred  to,  and  which  are 
reproduced  in  the  wood-cuts  of  this  paper,  Dr.  Dorat  has  favored 
me  with  specimens  of  the  Balsam-tree,  Myroxylon  Pereirce  Kl. ; 
and  as  I  have  also  received  it  from  three  other  independent  col- 
lectors, I  do  not  feel  the  least  hesitation  in  regarding  it  as  the 
source  of  the  whole  of  the  Balsam  of  Peru  of  commerce.  Dr. 
Dorat  is  himself  of  this  opinion ;  and  the  late  Mr.  Sutton 
Hayes  who  was  an  excellent  botanical  observer,  and  who  gath- 
ered specimens  of  the  tree  at  Cuisnagua  and  in  other  places, 
assured  me  that  so  far  as  he  knew,  no  other  species  of  Myroxy- 
lon occurs  on  the  Balsam  Coast  or  in  Guatemala. 
Although  there  is  some  evidence  to  show  that  the  balsamic 
exudations  of  one  or  two  other  species  of  Myroxylon  or  Myros- 
permum  were  formerly  collected  in  other  parts  of  tropical 
America  and  sent  to  Europe  as  Balsam  of  Peru,  it  is  hardly  on 
that  account  the  less  certain  that  for  nearly  three  centuries  the 
great  bulk  of  the  drug  imported  ha?  had  the  same  origin  as 
that  of  the  present  day.  At  the  period  of  the  Spanish  con- 
quest, the  balsam  was  an  important  production  of  the  very  re- 
gion where  it  is  still  obtained,  as  is  evidenced  by  it  forming  part 
of  the  tribute  carried  by  the  aborigines  of  the  coast  to  the  chiefs 
in  the  interior.  It  appears  moreover,  that  the  estimation  in 
which  it  was  held  by  the  Indians  was  soon  shared  by  their  in- 
vaders ;  for  in  consequence  of  the  representations  of  missiona- 
ry ecclesiastics,  Pope  Pius  V.  was  induced  to  issue  a  bill  under 
date  1571,  authorizing  the  use  of  the  balsam  produced  in  the 
country  for  the  preparation  of  the  Holy  Chrism  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  A  copy  of  this  curious  document  is  still  pre- 
served among  the  archive  of  Guatemala  (of  which  state  Salva- 
dor was  formerly  a  part),  as  well  as  in  the  Vatican  at  Rome.* 
Father  Joseph  de  Acosta  in  his  Historia  Natural y  Moral  de  las 
Indias,  published  at  Seville  in  1590,  after  referring  to  this  fact, 
remarks  that  balsam  is  brought  from  New  Spain  and  the  provin- 
ces of  Guatemala  and  Chiapas  and  others  in  those  parts  where 
*  Vide  also  Pharm.  Journ.  and  Trans.,  vol.  ih  (1861)  p.  446, 
