334 
ON A SUBSTANCE RESEMBLING MYRRH. 
persuaded was he that the samples separated were of the 
purest kind. The resemblance to certain samples of this gum 
resin, must in fact have been exceedingly close, for a dealer, 
as habituated as he was to see daily the drug, to be so deceived. 
Of forty pieces which I tried, thirty-five were found to 
be false myrrh, and I confess, that on my own part, I shared 
i with him the mistake, and should have still continued in it, 
had not a peculiar circumstance led me to examine matters a 
little more closely. 
Destitute as I am of all idea of the origin of this natural 
product, I shall designate it in anticipation by the name of 
myrrhoid, because it is especially from its form that it pos- 
sesses a resemblance to myrrh, and moreover in order'to dis- 
tinguish between it and other myrrhs which are false or pre- 
tended to be such. 
This myrrhoid presents itself like myrrh, in tears of an ir- 
regular shape, some mammaleonated or striated of a yellow 
color, somewhat opaque and covered over w T ith a grayish 
powder; these are most numerous; others, of a reddish brown, 
are more transparent, exhibit a vitreous fracture, and externally 
are less rugose than the preceding. Myrrhoid, which has for 
a long time been in contact with true myrrh, retains a little of 
its odor, but it becomes inodorous, if after having brushed it 
to remove the powder, we plunge it into feeble alcohol, and ex- 
pose it for a few days to the open air. 
This myrrhoid has a bitter, disagreeable taste, to a certain 
extent resembling that of myrrh, but is very acrid and a little 
pungent; a taste which remains for a long time in the fauces; 
its powder is inodorous, of a yellowish white color. 
Action of water upon the myrrhoid. 
A portion of this substance in powder, rubbed up with fif- 
teen parts of water in an agate mortar, afforded an almost 
transparent solution, very little colored, from which there was 
separated by repose a soft substance, of a yellow color, B, 
which could not be dissolved in a new portion of cold water. 
When precipitated, it formed about the T J- V of the myrrhoid; 
