ON  WOOD  OIL,  A    SUBSTITUTE  FOR  COPAIBA. 
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form  carbonate,  which  salt  was  retained  in  solution  by  the  rest 
of  the  carbomic  acid  until  driven  off  by  ebullition.  The  small 
quantity  of  cupreous  salt  is  decomposed  by  the  bright  iron 
spatula.  It  follows  from  this  that  it  is  not  proper  to  treat  the 
juice  of  any  plant  in  an  untinned  copper  vessel,  especially  if  an 
iron  spatula  is  used  Repertoire  de  Pharmacie,  Aout.  1855. 
ON  WOOD  OIL,  A  SUBSTITUTE  FOR  COPAIBA. 
By  Daniel  Hanbury. 
Among  the  drugs  that  have  recently  appeared  in  the  London 
market,  I  have  observed  one  article  to  which  I  am  desirous  of 
drawing  attention.  It  is  a  liquid  imported  in  considerable  quan- 
tity from  Moulmein  in  Burmah,  and  offered  for  sale  under  the 
name  of  Balsam  Capivi,  but  known  in  India  as  Wood  Oil  or 
Gurjun  Balsam. 
To  Balsam  of  Copaiba,  however,  it  presents  so  remarkable  a 
resemblance,  that,  but  for  the  locality  from  which  it  was  im- 
ported, it  would  hardly  have  been  noticed  as  anything  else  than 
Copaiba  of  rather  unusually  dark  color. 
In  the  Paris  Universal  Exhibition  there  are  two  samples  of  a 
similar  liquid,  labelled  Wood  Oil,  one  of  them  being  sent  among 
the  Materia  Medica  of  Canara,  the  other  from  the  Tenasserim 
provinces.  Through  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Royle,  specimens  of 
each  have  been  placed  at  my  disposol.  Though  comparatively 
a  new  drug  in  English  trade,  Wood  Oil  is  an  article  of  common 
occurrence  in  the  bazaars  of  India. 
From  its  similarity  to  Copaiba,  it  might  be  supposed  to  have 
its  origin  in  some  plant  nearly  allied  to  Oopaifera  :  such,  how- 
ever, is  not  the  case,  it  being  the  produce  of  the  natural  order 
Dipterocarpa?. 
The  following  is  Roxburgh's  account  of  the  manner  of  obtain- 
ing it  from  Dipterocarpus  turbinatus,  an  immense  tree,  native 
of  Chittagong,  Tipperah,  Pegue,  and  other  places  to  the  east- 
ward of  Bengal.* 
"  This  tree  is  famous  over  all  the  Eastern  parts  of  India  and  the  Malay 
*  Flora  Indica  (ed.  Carey)  vol  ii.  p.  613. 
