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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
ART. XII.— MEMOIR UPON THE ORIGIN AND DISTINCTIVE 
CHARACTERS OF THE TURPENTINES. By M. Guibourt, 
Professor in the School of Pharmacy, 
Read before the Society of Pharmacy of Paris. 
I desire to occupy the Society with some of the resinous 
productions known by the name of Turpentines. It is not 
because there can be brought forward many new circum- 
stances connected with a subject so old and so often treated 
of, but because error is every where intermingled with truth, 
and even at the present time there exists among pharmaceutists 
and druggists so much uncertainty with respect tothe distinction 
between the different species of turpentine, that it appears to 
me proper to set forth their characters with more precision 
than has hitherto been done. If I have been enabled to suc- 
ceed in this undertaking, after much research and attention, I 
am indebted for it to the kindness of two fellow members, 
who, by their residence in the places where these products 
are obtained, have procured for me genuine specimens of 
them; one of the individuals is M. Bonjean, sen., of Cham- 
bery; the other is M. Choulettee, pharmacien, of Strasburgh. 
With the ancients the word Terebinthina was but an ad- 
jective noun, which, joined to the generic name Resina, was 
exclusively applied to the product of the Pistacia terebin- 
thus. Resina terebinthina meant resin of the Turperitine, 
as resina lentiscina signified that of the lentisck; resina 
abietina that of the fir, and so of the others; as resina larix, 
or laricea, resina cyparissina, pieea, pinea, strobilina, &c. 
But the superiority which for a long time was accorded to 
the turpentine resin, the name of which was most frequently 
employed in speech, and the habit assumed, for brevity, of 
dropping the word resin, have had the effect of converting the 
adjective into a specific noun substantive, and this in its turn 
became generic, when applied to other liquid resins, which 
were regarded as proper substitutes for the first. Finally, in 
our day, this noun has received a still larger signification, 
