HISTORICAL  NOTES  ON  MANNA. 
163 
as  a  production  of  the  island.  This  induced  me  to  look  around 
for  further  information,  the  result  of  which  has  been  the  collec- 
tion of  a  few  notes  on  the  history  of  this  drug,  which  seem  of 
sufficient  interest  to  be  presented  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Society. 
In  the  first  place,  I  must  thank  Colonel  Yule,  to  whom  I  wrote, 
thinking  that  his  familiarity  with  historical  research,  and  actual 
residence  at  Palermo,  might  enable  him  to  impart  some  hints  for 
my  guidance.  But  he  has  been  good  enough  to  render  me  still 
greater  service  in  furnishing  extracts  from  several  authors  whose 
works  I  might  otherwise  have  overlooked. 
With  regard  to  manna  which  has  fallen  from  the  atmosphere, 
or,  as  it  is  termed,  Meteoric  3fanna,  the  grand  example  is  that 
described  in  the  book  of  Exodus.  Of  this  it  may  be  safely 
affirmed  that,  accepting  the  Mosaic  account  as  the  simple  narra- 
tive of  ^a  real  event,  no  phenomenon  is  known  which  is  at  all 
adequate  to  explain  it.  ^ 
But  there  are  other  examples  of  meteoric  manna  which  come 
fairly  within  the  range  of  natural  phenomena,  and  which  it  would 
be  interesting  to  consider,  did  space  permit.  I  may  observe  that 
the  notion  that  manna  is  not  the  juice  of  a  plant,  but  that  it  is 
of  the  nature  of  dew  and  falls  from  the  sky,  is  very  ancient,  and 
still  lingers  in  the  East.  In  the  case  of  the  manna-ash,  it  was 
disproved  by  the  Franciscan  monks  Angelus  Palea  and  Bartho- 
lomseus  ab  Urbe  Yetere,  who  relate  how  they  caused  some  of  the 
trees  to  be  covered  with  sheets,  so  that  nothing  could  fall  upon 
them ;  and  that  notwithstanding  this  precaution,  manna  was^ 
produced  as  before.*  But  this  reasonable  conclusion  was  re- 
garded as  scarcely  orthodox,  and  the  learned  Matthioli  was  at 
much  pains  to  supply  an  explanation  more,  as  he  thought,  in  ac- 
cordance with  Scripture. 
The  special  point,  however,  which  I  desire  to  discuss  in  this 
paper  relates  to  the  period  at  which  ash-manna  began  to  be  col- 
lected. Manna  is  mentioned  more  or  less  particularly  by  most 
of  the  Arabian  physicians  with  whose  works  we  are  more  or  less 
acquainted,  but  the  allusions  are  all  to  Oriental  manna  and  not 
*Geoffroy,  Tradatus  de  Mat.  Med.  II,  587.    The  whole  disquisition  of. 
this  author  De  Manna  soluttvd,  is  replete  with  informationv 
/ 
