4 
ESSAY ON SCAMMONY. 
Captain D'Urville met with the plant at Cos. It is evident 
then that the plant is not confined to any one locality, but 
has extended and now extends through the Levant, which 
is an additional reason for assuming that the present plant 
and that of the ancients are the same. There appears, indeed^ 
to have been no dissent, except in the case of Dr. Sibthorp. 
In tracing the history of the drug, the fact is apparent 
that the estimation of the quality of it, as produced in dif- 
ferent places, has undergone revolution ; thus Dioscorides 
eulogizes the Mysian scammony, stating that it is bright, 
clear, clean, ash coloured, spongy and porous, while that 
from Syria and Judea is the worst of all, as it is massive, 
weighty and sophisticated with tithemalus, (Euphorbia) 
and fecula of the orobus (lenlil.) Tournefort wonders 
that it should have been preferred to that of Judea, 
which is the same as that of Syria. Matthiolus, as we have 
stated, indicated the source as Alexandria and Syria. As a 
consequence, the trade in it assumed new directions, and new 
locations became prominent, from which have been derived 
specific appellations. Upon Aleppo, as a depot, the article 
was concentrated, which was of the best kind, and hence 
the designation Jilej)po Scammom- According to Hassel- 
quist, it was brought there in small sacks. The appellation 
of Smyrna scammony, according to Tournefort, originated in 
the circumstance that the product of Natolia was carried 
to Smyrna.* 
But other causes have been operative in changing the 
course of supply; thus St. Jean D' Acre was once a port of exit, 
but it was abandoned, as the Arabs plundered the caravans 
on their way to it from the neighbourhood of Mt. CarmeL 
St. Jean d'Acre is mentioned as one of the ports of shipment 
by Pomet, (ed. 1 695.) The distinction between Aleppo and 
* From the close proximity of Smyrna to the ancient province of 
Mysia, it would appear that the same locality has always produced the 
article, especially if, as Tournefort remarks, Natolia, which includes a 
portion of Mysia, furnished the Smyrna kind. 
