Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Sept.,  1891. 
Note  on  Sandal  Wood. 
449 
Gum  Senegal  has  been  stated  to  be  more  hygroscopic  than  gum 
arabic;  but  on  drying  at  105 °,  the  former  lost  13*39  per  cent.,  the 
latter  14-56  per  cent.,  and,  on  exposure  to  the  moist  atmosphere,  the 
former  reabsorbed  6-15,  the  latter  6-34  per  cent,  of  water. 
NOTE  ON  SANDAL  WOOD.* 
By  M.  Adrian. 
Sandal  wood  has  been  known  in  India  from  the  highest  antiquity; 
it  is  mentioned  under  the  name  "chandanna"  in  the  "  Nirukta,"  or 
writings  of  Yaska,  the  most  ancient  Vedic  text  known,  dating  the 
fifth  century  B.C.  At  that  time,  and  for  long  after,  it  was  specially 
utilized  as  a  perfume,  as  well  as  in  burial  rites,  either  to  embalm  the 
dead  or  to  feed  the  funereal  pile.  Even  now  this  wood  is  used  for 
the  same  purpose  in  India,  and  the  honor  rendered  to  the  dead  is 
proportional  to  the  number  of  logs  of  sandal  wood  upon  the  pile. 
The  Greeks  and  Romans  seem  not  to  have  been  acquainted  with 
sandal  wood.  In  any  case  it  is  not  mentioned  in  their  writings,  and 
the  first  European  writer  who  speaks  of  it  is  Constantinus  Africanus, 
of  Salerno,  in  the  eleventh  century.  In  the  fifteenth,  Ebn  Serapi, 
surnamed  Serapion  the  younger,  mentions  three  kinds,  red,  yellow 
and  white. 
Already  at  this  time  the  three  kinds  of  sandal  wood  were  indi- 
cated as  being  kept  by  the  apothecaries,  but  it  was  not  until  later 
that  the  true  medicinal  properties  of  the  wood  were  known.  In 
1750,  Dutch  travellers  visiting  the  Moluccas  brought  back  and 
communicated  to  Rumphius,  of  Rotterdam,  a  remedy  used  by  the 
natives  against  blennorrhagia,  which  consisted  of  a  maceration  of 
disintegrated  sandal  wood.  Rumphius  studied  this  product,  and  it 
was  he  who  first  gave,  in  his  work  entitled  "  Herbarium  Amboi- 
nense,"  a  detailed  description  of  Santalum  album. 
However,  the  favor  accorded  at  first  to  sandal  wood  was  of  short 
duration,  and  as  a  medicine  it  had  fallen  completely  into  oblivion, 
when  in  1865,  in  the  United  States,  Dr.  Henderson,  in  order  to 
avoid  the  disagreeable  repetitions  and  intestinal  disturbances  that 
accompany  the  administration  of  copaiba  and  cubebs,  thought  of 
substituting  it  by  oil  of  sandal  wood.  The  experiments  made  by 
him  in  this  direction  having  been  crowned  with  success,  he  com- 
*Journ.  de  Pharm.  et  de  C/iim.,  July  15,  Supp.,  p.  vii  ;  reprinted  from  P/iar. 
Jour,  and  Trans.,  July  18,  1891. 
