168 
HISTOEICAL  NOTES  ON  MANNA. 
white  grains,  resembling  little  grains  of  mastich,  and  having  a 
sweet  and  agreeable  taste.  The  second  sort  was  that  which 
flowed  spontaneously  from  the  trunk  and  branches,  and  was 
termed  manna  di  corpo  ;  while  the  third  or  commonest  kind  was 
that  picked  up  from  the  ground. 
Towards  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  it  was  found 
that  a  much  more  copious  supply  of  manna  could  be  obtained  by 
notching  the  bark  of  the  tree,  and  this  new  method  of  procuring 
the  drug  began  to  be  adopted.*  But  the  innovation  did  not  pass 
unnoticed,  for  in  the  year  1562  Marino  Spinelli,  he'mg protomedico 
of  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  set  about  inquiring  as  to  the  article 
sold  by  the  druggists  as  Manna :  and  as  he  doubtless  found  it 
no  longer  corresponded  with  that  of  former  days,  he  declared,  in 
concert  with  other  learned  physicians,  that  it  was  by  no  means 
good  ;  and  further  to  enforce  his  opinion,  he  procured  the  issuing 
of  a  public  edict,  prohibiting  the  druggists,  under  a  severe  pen- 
alty, from  using  any  other  manna  than  that  of  the  leaf.  This 
law  proved  very  injurious  to  the  Calabrians ;  it  was  felt,  also,  to 
be  both  severe  and  unjust  by  many  of  the  physicians,  one  of 
whom,  Annibal  Briganti,  took  up  the  question  in  a  philosophical 
spirit,  made  many  visits  to  the  manna  districts,  and  investigated 
the  differences  alleged  to  exist  between  one  sort  of  exudation  and 
another.  This  resulted  in  the  discovery  that  manna,  whether 
spontaneously  yielded  by  the  leaves  or  stem,  or  obtained  from 
the  latter  by  aid  of  incisions,  is  essentially  the  same  substance 
and  possesses  like  virtues.  These  observations  were  recorded  by 
Briganti  in  a  long  discourse  written  in  Latin,  for  which,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  he  has  had  very  little  credit — for  not  wholly  trust- 
ing his  own  judgment  on  a  subject  so  grave  and  controversial, 
he  sent  his  MS.  from  Chieti,  where  he  lived,  to  another  learned 
man,  Donatus  Antonius  ab  Altomari,  of  Naples,  who  so  entirely 
approved  of  it  that  he  immediately  published  the  whole  of  it  in 
his  own  name  If    Under  the  assumed  authorship  of  Altomari, 
^'In  Bauhin's  edition  of  the  commentaries  of  Matthioli,  published  at 
Basle  in  1574,  the  practice  of  making  incisions  in  the  bark  of  the  tree  is 
distinctly  alluded  to,  as  being  followed  in  Apulia  and  Calabria  "  hac 
cetate.'' 
t  " Senza pure  un  minimo  segno  di  gratitudme"   The  account  of  this 
i 
