6 
ESSAY ON SCAMMONY. 
leaves and stems. An inferior article will be thus produced. 
We are forced then to admit this explanation, or to assume 
one, which Lindley states he doubts, to wit, that the 
Smyrna article was the product of a different plant, {Peri- 
ploca secamone,) this, exclusive of other reasons, (as the 
article has disappeared, and given place to factitious prepa- 
rations,) is hardly tenable. 
It has been stated that the distinction between Aleppo 
and Smyrna scammony has been of late years abandoned. 
This has been occasioned by investigations in which the 
English pharmacologists more particularly have been suc- 
cessful, and which have resulted in the disclosure of prac- 
tices which most probably had long existed, but to which 
attention had not been directed. Smyrna is the port of 
shipment; to this place the pure scammony is taken in a 
soft state, and there fabricated to suit purchasers, according 
to a tariff of prices. The individuals are called scammony 
makers, and, as I have been informed by an intelligent 
dealer,* prepare a mixture of impurities, with which the scam- 
mony is commingled. As this stands, the mixture assumes 
the form of strata of various strengths, the greater levity of 
the scammony keeping it towards the top, while the heavier 
impurities settle to the bottom. From such preparation, the 
several qualities of the article are skimmed and formed by 
evaporation ; hence, the terms first, second and third sorts. 
Virgin scammony and these sorts constitute the article of 
commerce. The admixture of foreign substances was an 
old practice, for Dioscorides, in preferring the Mysian article 
to those of Syria and Judea, states as a reason that the lat- 
ter were adulterated with tithemalus and the farina of the 
orobus. 
Virgin scammony in this market is at present com- 
paratively unknown; formerly, from the statements of 
the older druggists, it was common; let us then exhibit 
its qualities and value. The name Virgifi, is that 
* A gentleman of Boston. 
