ON A SUBSTANCE RESEMBLING MYRRH. 337 
throat. It is very soluble in cold water without residue, and 
in alcohol and ether. 
It is the same matter which, in the treatment by water, we 
designated under the name of myrrhoidine. 
Treatment, by water, of the residuum of the myrrhoid 
insoluble in boiling alcohol. 
The portion of the myrrhoid, which had not been acted 
upon by alcohol, was heated to ebullition with a sufficient 
quantity of water: it was equally soluble in a small quantity 
of cold water. The solution was still further diluted to sepa- 
rate some portions of ligneous matter, or sand, foreign to its 
composition. This solution being evaporated, left a residuum, 
which had the flat taste of gum, without any after bitter taste 
or acridity. 
In equal weight, the mucilage which it formed with water, 
was a little less consistent than that of gum Arabic. But if 
it be recollected that when gum Arabic is dissolved and dried, 
according to Berzelius, it retains seventeen per cent.^of water, 
it will be seen that the two mucilages are nearly the same. 
M. Pelletier has seen, under the same circumstances, the 
gum of myrrh produce a mucilage thicker than that of gum 
Arabic. The gum of the myrrhoid renders the fixed oils 
equally as miscible as gum Arabic. 
When the myrrhoid is treated directly with boiling abso- 
lute alcohol, so as to remove from it all that it contains soluble 
in this menstruum, ten per cent, of myrrhoidine is obtained — 
the remainder is gum. 
When, on the contrary, the alcohol is made to act solely upon 
the portion of the myrrhoid, soluble in cold water, but seven 
per cent, is obtained, and this ought to be the T |^, having 
been separated by water. Hence it follows, that the dried 
product of the aqueous solution of the myrrhoid is a definite 
combination, composed of seven parts of myrrhoidine and 
ninety-three parts of gum; and that the natural myrrhoid, 
when entire, is composed of 
VOL. vi. — no. iv. 43 
