ON THE TURPENTINES. 
71 
Mathiolus is the first author who can aid us in unravelling 
the confusion which has been stated. The following is what 
he says, in his commentaries upon Dioscorides, Liber I. 
Chap. 74. 
"There is obtained from the larix, a resin erroneously- 
named turpentine, since the true turpentine is derived from 
the pistachia; but as for a long period the merchants bring 
only a small quantity of this, physicians and druggists 
employ in its place the resin of the larch, and from 
this practice results the name given to it of turpentine." 
" The inhabitants of Trent, and the adjacent country, give 
to the resin of the larch, the name of larga, derived from 
laricea or larigna. It does not flow naturally from the tree, 
and to obtain it, it is necessary to pierce the trunk to the cen- 
tre with an auger. The resin which flows out, is received in 
vessels fabricated from the bark of the pine. The young 
trees produce the most transparent resin, and the old a thicker 
kind. The pitch tree produces between the bark and the 
wood a concrete resin like gum; sometimes, however, there 
runs from it a liquid resin like that of the larch; but it is the 
fir, which contains in its bark the excellent liquid named 
lacrimo or tears of fir, of which the ancients have said no- 
thing that I know of, at least it is not thought to be that de- 
signated by Galen, as liquid resin of the pitch tree, which 
the colporteurs sold in place of turpentine." 
"They are deceived, (continues Mathiolus,) who take the 
tears of the fir for the clearest resin of the larch. The first 
collects in vesicles, concealed between the laminae of bark, 
and flows out when these are separated, while the resin of the 
larch flows, when the trunk of the tree has been perforated to 
the centre. Some mix the resins in order to increase the 
profit, as that of the fir is in higher estimation than the other; 
others again strain it several times, until it becomes transpa- 
rent, in order to sell it for the resin of fir; — for there are few 
druggists who know how to distinguish the one from the 
other. Still the fraud can be detected, as the tear of fir is 
much more liquid, of an infinitely more agreeable odor, and of 
