ON THE TURPENTINES. 
67 
which consists in bestowing it upon every fluid or soft vege- 
table product, formed of volatile oil and resin, without ben- 
zoic or cinnamic acids; as, for example, the fluid resins of 
Copaifera, Balsamodendron, Hedwigia, C a lop ht/ 1 turn, &c. 
While, according in the utility of thus designating by a com- 
mon and unequivocal appellation the preceding products, 
which, in reality, are neither balsams or resins, I shall here 
confine myself to the turpentine of the Pistacia terebinthus, 
and those of the Coniferse of Europe, which are the Larches, 
the Pines, and Firs. 
Of the Turpentine from the Pistacia terebinthus, or 
Chian Turpentine. 
I have stated that the ancients recognised as turpentine only 
that from the P. terebinthus. They obtained it principally 
from the Grecian islands, from Lybia, Cyprus, Syria, and 
Judaea. Andromachus, the father, prescribed for the theriaca 
the turpentine of Lybia, at which Gallen wonders, as that of 
Chian was reputed best by all physicians. " Yet," says he, 
"I esteem that of Lybia equally well, when it is good, but it 
is not unknown that it is not always as good as that which 
comes from Chio. Good turpentine is also obtained from Pon- 
tus, and other places, but that of Chio is superior to all others 
for its odor and taste." 
The ancients have praised this Chian turpentine highly, but 
at the same time have described it imperfectly. It is neces- 
sary to join together scraps of phrases in order to determine 
some of its characters, and still we are tempted to believe that 
they knew it only as it was more or less sophisticated. " Turpen- 
tine," Dioscorides tells us, " should be white, transparent, of the 
color of glass, inclining to blue, smelling of the tree. In quali- 
ties it is superior to all other resins; those which nearest 
approach it are the resins of the lentisck, of the pine and fir. 
Next come the resins of the pitch fir, and of the cones of the 
cultivated pine." Galen places in the first rank of resins 
that of the lentisck, or mastic, and of the others, says he, 
