132 
ON THE TURPENTINES. 
the first, and M. Amedee Caillot, as regards the second. I 
have, moreover, noticed the close analogy there is between 
the turpentine of the fir and balsam of Canada, derived from 
the Mies balsamea. Both, in fact, are liquid, almost color- 
less, transparent in a state of purity, very drying, and acquir- 
ing, by time, a golden yellow color, of a sweet odor, (different, 
nevertheless, in each,) and imperfectly soluble in alcohol. This 
close resemblance, however, is not astonishing, as the trees 
are scarcely different, both having the distich leaves, silvery 
beneath, and the upright cones formed of rounded scales, accom- 
panied with bracts. Both equally furnish a resin from the ve- 
sicles, which appear twice annually upon the surface of the 
bark. If, then, it be desirable to find a succedaneum for the 
balsam of Canada, it is evident that it is the turpentine of the fir, 
in the same way as in place of Chian turpentine we employ 
mastick. With respect to the turpentine of the larch, it dif- 
fers from all others, so that it cannot be substituted by any one 
of them. 
Yellow, or Burgundy Pitch. 
Nothing more is left for me in this article, in consequence 
of the preceding details, but to set forth the characters of the 
true Burgundy Pitch, for which is substituted every where 
a factitious pitch, fabricated out of the rosin of the maritime 
pine, melted and admixed with a sufficiency of Bordeaux 
turpentine or its essence, to give it the consistence of the 
native pitch. This substitution may appear to many per- 
sons of little importance; yet if it be admitted that the odor, 
in short, the peculiar nature of medicines, have no influence 
upon their medical properties, perhaps the confusion will not 
be regarded as an indifferent fact, which has become establish- 
ed between two resinous substances. 
The resin which flows from the A. excelsa, either naturally 
or artificially, is colorless, at first semifluid and nebulous, and 
its odor resembles that of the turpentine of the A. taxifolia ; 
but by drying, when exposed to the air, a singular circum- 
