Chapter X: Part 10

=Description=—Myrrh consists of irregular roundish masses, varying in size from small grains up to pieces as large as an egg, and occasionally much larger. They are of an opaque reddish-brown with dusty dull surface. When broken, they exhibit a rough or waxy fracture, having a moist and unctuous appearance, especially when pressed, and a rich brown hue. The fractured, translucent surface often displays characteristic whitish marks which the ancients compared to the light mark at the base of the finger-nails. Myrrh has a peculiar and agreeable fragrance with an aromatic, bitter, and acrid taste. It cannot be finely powdered until deprived by drying of some of its essential oil and water; nor when heated does it melt like colophony.

Water disintegrates myrrh, forming a light brown emulsion, which viewed under the microscope appears made up of colourless drops, among which are granules of yellow resin. Alcohol dissolves the resin of myrrh, leaving angular non-crystalline particles of gum[574] and fragments of bark.

=Chemical Composition=—Myrrh is a mixture, in very varying proportions, of resin, mucilaginous matters, and essential oil. A fine specimen of myrrh from the Somali coast, with which Captain Hunter, in 1877, kindly presented one of us, yielded 27 per cent. of resin. The undissolved portion is partly soluble in water.

[572] _Pharm. Journ._ xii. (1853) 226.

[573] Capt. S. B. Miles, in _Journ. of R. Geograph._ Soc. xli. (1871) 236. The country visited by Miles and Munzinger is the “Smyrnifera regio exterior,” the outer country producing myrrh of the ancients, about 14° 10′ N. lat. and 57° E. long. See also Sprenger, _Alte Geographie Arabiens_, 313.

[574] Druggists who prepare large quantities of Tincture of Myrrh may utilize this gum for making a common sort of mucilage.—_Pharm. Journ._ 10 June, 1871, 1001.

The resin dissolves completely in chloroform or alcohol, and the colour of the latter solution is but slightly darkened by perchloride of iron. It is but partially soluble in alkalis or in bisulphide of carbon. Brückner (1867) found this portion to yield 75·6 per cent. of carbon and 9·5 of hydrogen. The resin which the bisulphide refuses to dissolve, is freely soluble in ether. It contains only 57·4 per cent. of carbon. The resin of myrrh to which, when moistened with alcohol, a small quantity of concentrated nitric or hydrochloric acid is added, assumes a violet hue, but far less brilliant than that displayed by resin of galbanum when treated in a similar manner. But a most intensely violet liquid may be obtained by adding bromine to the resin dissolved in bisulphide of carbon. If the resin of myrrh as afforded by alcohol is warmed with petroleum (boiling at 70° C.), only a small amount of resin is dissolved. This liquid becomes turbid if vapours of bromine are added; a violet flocculent matter deposits, whereas the just above-mentioned solution in the bisulphide continues clear on addition of bromine.

The resin of myrrh is not capable of affording umbelliferone like that of galbanum. By melting it with potash, pyrocatechin and protocatechuic acid are produced in small amount.

Myrrh yields on distillation a volatile oil which in operating on 25 lb. of the drug, we obtained to the extent of ¾ per cent.[575] It is a yellowish, rather viscid liquid, neutral to litmus, having a powerful odour of myrrh and sp. gr. 0·988 at 13° C.[576] In a column 50 mm. long, it deviates a ray of light 30·1° to the left. By submitting it to distillation, we obtained before the oil boiled, a few drops of a strongly acid liquid having the smell of formic acid. Neutralized with ammonia, this liquid produced in solution of mercurous nitrate a whitish precipitate which speedily darkened, thus indicating formic acid, which is developed in the oil. Old myrrh is in fact said to yield an acid distillate. The oil begins to boil at about 266° C., and chiefly distills over between 270° and 290°.

On combustion in the usual way it afforded carbon 84·70, hydrogen 9·98. Having been again rectified in a current of dry carbonic acid, it had a boiling point of 262-263° C., and now afforded[577] carbon 84·70, hydrogen 10·26, which would nearly answer to the formula C₂₂H₃₂O. The results of Ruickholdt’s analysis (1845) of essential oil of myrrh assign it the formula C₁₀H₁₄O, which is widely different from that indicated by our experiments.

The oil which we rectified displays a faintly greenish hue; it is miscible in every proportion with bisulphide of carbon, the solution exhibiting at first no peculiar coloration when a drop of nitric or sulphuric acid is added. Yet the mixture to which nitric acid (1·20) has been added, assumes after an hour or two a fine violet hue which is very persistent, enduring even if the liquid is allowed to dry up in a large capsule. If to the crude oil dissolved in bisulphide of carbon bromine be added, a violet hue is produced; and if the solution is allowed to evaporate, and the residue diluted with spirit of wine, it assumes a fine blue which disappears on addition of an alkali. The oil is not much altered by boiling with alcoholic potash, nor does it combine with alkaline bisulphites.

[575] Ruickholdt got 2·18 per cent.; Bley and Diesel (1845) from 1·6 to 3·4 per cent. of an acid oil. We are kindly informed by Mr. Fritzsche of Leipzig (Messrs. Schimmel & Co.) that good myrrh distilled on a large scale yields as much as 4·4 per cent. of oil. (Letter dated 13th June, 1878.)

[576] Gladstone (1863) found the oil a little _heavier_ than water.

[577] Analyses performed in my laboratory by Dr. Buri, February, 1874. See also my paper on Carvol, _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (1876) 75, or _Yearbook of Pharmacy_ (1877) 51—F. A. F.

The _Bitter principle_ of myrrh is contained in the resin as extracted by alcohol. By exhausting the resin with warm water an acid brown solution is obtained, from which a dark, viscid, neutral mass separates if the liquid is concentrated; it is contaminated with a large amount of inorganic matter, from which it may be purified by means of ether. Yet the latter affords also but an amorphous, somewhat brittle brown substance, softening at 80°-90° C. This bitter principle reminds us of that mentioned in our article Elemi, page 151; it is but sparingly soluble in water; the yellowish solution is intensely bitter. The bitter principle of myrrh appears to be a glucoside. We have not succeeded in preparing it in a more satisfactory state.

=Commerce=—Myrrh is chiefly shipped by way of Berbera to Aden, and thence either to Europe or to Bombay. The exports of Aden in the fiscal year 1875 to 1876 were 1439 cwt.; one-half of which went to Bombay, one third to the United Kingdom.[578]

The bags or bales which contain the myrrh are opened in Bombay, and the drug is sorted. The better portion goes to Europe, the refuse to China, where it is probably used as an incense.[579]

=Uses=—Myrrh, though much used, does not appear to possess any very important medicinal powers, and is chiefly employed on account of its bitter, aromatic properties.

=Other Varieties of Myrrh=—Though the myrrh of commerce exhibits some diversity of appearance, the drug-brokers and druggists of London are not in the habit of applying any special designations to the different qualities. There are however two varieties which deserve notice.

1. _Bissa Bol_ (_Bhesabol_, _Bysabole_), _Habaghadi_ or _Hebbakhade_ of the Somalis, formerly called _East India Myrrh_.[580]

This drug is of African origin, but of the plant which yields it nothing is known. Vaughan[581] who sent a sample from Aden to one of us in 1852, was told by the natives that the tree from which it is collected resembles that affording _Heera Ból_ or true myrrh, but that it is nevertheless distinct. The drug is exported from the whole Somali coast to Mokha, Jidda, Aden, Makulla, the Persian Gulf, India and even China.[582] Bombay official returns show that the quantity imported thither in the year 1872-73, was 224 cwt, all shipped from Aden.

Some myrrh, no doubt that from the interior of north-eastern Africa, the Habaghadi or Baisabole, finds its way by the country of the Wagadain (Ugahden or Ogadain) to the small port of Brava (Barawa, Braoua), about 1° N. lat., and to Zanzibar.[583] This is, possibly, also the “_Mirra fina_” which is stated, about the year 1502, by Tomé Lopez to be collected (?) in the island of “Monzambiche.”[584]

[578] Information obligingly supplied by Captain Hunter, July 1877.

[579] Dymock, _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1876) 661.

[580] _Myrrha indica_, Martiny, _Encyklop. der med-pharm._ _Rohwaarenkunde_, ii. (1854) 98, 101.

[581] _Pharm. Journ._ xii. (1853) 227.

[582] In 1865, 10 packages of this drug containing about 15 cwt. were consigned to me for sale in London by a friend in China, who had purchased the drug under the notion that it was _true myrrh_. The commodity was bad of its kind, and was sold with difficulty at 30_s._ per cwt.—D. H.

[583] Guillain, _Documents sur l’histoire, la géogr. et le commerce de l’Afrique orientale_ iii. (1856) 350.

[584] In Ramusio (see Appendix, R) 239.

According to Vaughan, Bissa Bôl is mixed with the food given to milch cows and buffaloes in order to increase the quantity and improve the quality of their milk, and that it is also used as size to impart a bright gloss to whitewashed walls.

Miles mentions[585] that myrrh, called there _hodthai_, is only used in the Somali country, by men to whiten their shields (by means of an emulsion made with the drug), by women to cleanse their hair. Probably hodthai and habaghadi is one and the same thing.

Bissa Bôl differs from myrrh in its stronger, almost acrid _taste_ and in _odour_, which, when once familiar is easily recognizable; fine specimens of the former have the outward characters of myrrh and perhaps are often passed off for it. A good sample of “coarse” habaghadi myrrh as sent in 1877 by Captain Hunter from Aden proved to contain but very little resin. This resin is manifestly different from that of myrrh as already shown by its paler, more reddish colour. The resin of Bissa Bôl moreover is but very sparingly soluble in bisulphide of carbon; this solution is _not altered_ by bromine, that of true myrrh, as above stated, assuming a most intense violet colour on addition of bromine. Nor is the resin of habaghadi soluble in petroleum ether. Of the gummy substance, which is by far the prevailing constituent of this drug, a small portion only is soluble in water. These extremely marked differences no doubt depend upon a widely discrepant composition of the resins of the two kinds of myrrh as well as upon a different proportion of gum and resin. The Bissa Bôl usually seen is an impure and foul substance, which is regarded by London druggists as well as by the Banian traders in India as a very inferior dark sort of myrrh.

2. _Arabian Myrrh_—The drug we have mentioned at p. 143 as collected to the eastward of Aden, is of interest as substantiating the statement of Theophrastus that both olibanum and myrrh grow in Southern Arabia.

The drug, which is not distinguished by any special name in English trade, is in irregular masses seldom exceeding 1½ inches long, and having a somewhat gummy-looking exterior. The larger lumps seem formed by the cohesion of small, rounded, translucent, externally shining tears or drops. The fracture is like that of common myrrh, but less unctuous and wants the whitish markings. The odour and taste are those of the ordinary drug. Pieces of a semi-transparent papery bark are attached to some of the lumps. We extracted the resin of a sample of this myrrh from the territory of the Fadhli, as sent to us by Captain Hunter. Its solution in bisulphide of carbon or petroleum ether was coloured by bromine as stated above, (p. 144) with regard to typical myrrh (Heerabol) from the Somali Country. The name applies to myrrh from the vicinity of Ras Morbat in the same region. But the resin of another kind of Arabian myrrh, for which we are likewise indebted to Captain Hunter, is _not coloured_ when treated in the same way. This is the myrrh “Hodaidia Jebeli” from north and north-western Yenen.

[585] _Journ. of the R. Geogr. Soc._ 22 (1872) 64.

ELEMI.

_Resina Elemi_; _Elemi_; F. _Résine Elemi_; G. _Elemiharz_.

=Botanical Origin=—The resin known in pharmacy as _Elemi_ is derived from a tree growing in the Philippines, which Blanco,[586] a botanist of Manila, described in 1845 under the name of _Icica Abilo_, but which is completely unknown to the botanists of Europe. Blanco’s description is such that, if correct, the plant cannot be placed in either of the old genera _Icica_ or _Elaphrium_, comprehended by Bentham and Hooker in that of _Bursera_, nor yet in the allied genus _Canarium_; in fact even the order to which it belongs is somewhat doubtful.[587]

The tree grows in the province of Batangas in the island of Luzon (south of Manila), where its name in the Tagala language is _ábilo_; the Spaniards call it _Arbol a brea_, i.e. _pitch-tree_, from the circumstance that its resin is used for the caulking of boats.

=History=—The explicit statements of Theophrastus in the 3rd century B.C. relative to olibanum have already been mentioned. The same writer narrates[588] that a little above Coptus on the Red Sea, no tree is found except the acacia (ἀκάνθη) of the desert ... but that on the sea there grow laurel (δάϕνη) and olive (ἐλαία), from the latter of which exudes a substance much valued to make a medicine for the staunching of blood.

This story appears again in Pliny[589] who says that in Arabia the olive tree exudes tears which are an ingredient of the medicine called by the Greeks _Enhæmon_, from its efficacy in healing wounds.

Dioscorides[590] briefly notices the _Gum of the Ethiopian olive_, which he likens to scammony; and the same substance is named by Scribonius Largus[591] who practised medicine at Rome during the 1st century.

The writers who have commented on Dioscorides have generally adopted the opinion that the exudation of the so-called olive tree of Arabia and Ethiopia was none other than the substance known to them as _Elemi_, though, as remarked by Mattioli,[592] the oriental drug thus called by no means well accords with the description left by that author.

[586] _Flora de Filipians_, segunda impression, Manila, 1845. 256.

[587] On consulting Mr. A. W. Bennett, who is now studying the _Burseraceæ_ of India, as to the probable affinities of Blanco’s plant, we received from him the following remarks: “I have little hesitation in pronouncing that from the description, _Icica Abilo_ cannot be a _Canarium_, but what it is, is more difficult to say. The leaves having the lowest pair of leaflets smallest, seems at first sight very characteristic of _Canarium_; but the following considerations tend the other way. 1. The _opposite_ leaves which occur nowhere in _Burseraceæ_ except in _Amyris_, with which the plant does not agree in many ways. 2. The _stipellæ_ which are not found anywhere in the order.—3. The _quinate_ flowers. In all species of _Canarium_ the parts of the flowers are in threes, including _C. commune_, which according to Miquel extends to the Philippines. The only exception is _C._ (_Scutinanthe_ Thwaites) _brunneum_, with which it does not agree in, other respects.

“The foregoing reasons almost equally exclude _Icica_ (_Bursera_); yet the fruit of Blanco’s plant seems so eminently that of a _Burseracea_, that I think it must belong to that order, but with some error in the description of the leaves.”

[588] _Hist. Plant_, lib. iv. c. 7.

[589] Lib. xii c. 38.

[590] Lib. i. c. 141.

[591] _Compositiones Medicament_. cap. 103.

[592] _Comm. in lib. i, Dioscoridis._

As to that name, the earliest mention of it appears in the middle of the 15th century. Thus in a list of drugs sold at Frankfort about 1450, we find _Gommi Elempnij_.[593] Saladinus,[594] who lived about this period, enumerates _Gumi Elemi_ among the drugs kept by the Italian apothecaries, but we have not met with the name in any other writer of the school of Salerno. The _Arbolayre_,[595] a herbal supposed to have been printed about 1485, gives some account of _Gomme Elempni_, stating that it is the gum of the lemon tree and not of fennel as some think,—that it resembles Male Incense,—and makes an excellent ointment for wounds.

The name _Enhæmon_[596] of Pliny, also written _Enhæmi_, is probably the original form of the word _Animi_, another designation for the same drug, though also applied as at the present day to a sort of copal. It is even possible that the word _Elemi_ has the same origin.[597]

This primitive Elemi is in our opinion identical with a peculiar sort of olibanum known as _Luban Meyeti_, afforded by _Boswellia Frereana_ Birdwood (p. 135). It has a remarkable resemblance both in external appearance and in odour to the substance in after-times imported from America, and which were likened to the elemi and animi of the Old World. The description of “gummi elemnia” given by Valerius Cordus,[598] the most careful observer of his period, could in our opinion well apply to _Luban Meyeti_. (See p. 153 further on.)

The first reference to Elemi as a production of America comes from the pen of Monardes[599] who has a chapter on _Animi and Copal_. He describes animi as of a more oily nature than copal, of a very agreeable odour, and in grains resembling olibanum but of larger size, and adds that it differs from the animi of the Old World in being less white and clear.

At a somewhat later period this resin and some similar substances began to be substituted for _Elemi_ which had become scarce.[600] Pomet,[601] who as a dealer in drugs was a man of practical knowledge, laments that this American drug was being sold by some as Elemi, and by others as Animi or as Tacamaca. It was however introduced in great plenty, and at length took the place of the original elemi which became completely forgotten.

American Elemi was in turn discarded in favour of another sort imported from the Philippines. The first mention of this substance is to be found among the descriptions accompanied by drawings sent by Father Camellus to Petiver of London, of the shrubs and trees of Luzon,[602] in the year 1701. Camellus states that the tree, which from his drawing preserved in the British Museum appears to us to be a species of _Canarium_, is very tall and large, that it is called by the Spaniards _Arbol de la brea_, and that it yields an abundance of odorous resin which is commonly used for pitching boats. Living specimens of the tree together with samples of the resin were brought to Paris from Manila by the traveller Perrottet about the year 1820. For the last twenty years the resin has been common, and is now imported in large quantities[603] for use in the arts, so displacing all other kinds. It has been adopted as the _Elemi_ of the _British Pharmacopœia_ (1867), and is in fact the only variety of elemi now found in English commerce.

[593] Flückiger, _Die Frankfurter Liste_, Halle, 1873. 7. 16.—“Gumi elemi” is also found in a similar list of the year 1480, compiled in the town of Nördlingen, Bavaria. See _Archiv der Pharm._ 211 (1877) 103.

[594] _Compendium Aromatariorum_, Bonon. 1488.

[595] This very rare volume is one of the treasures of the National Library of Paris.

[596] From the Greek ἔνιμον, signifying _blood-stopping_.

[597] Brassavola observes—“quandoque inclinavimus ut gummi oleæ Æthiopicæ esset gummi _elemi_ dicti, quasi _enhæmi_.”—_Examen simplicium_, Lugd. 1537. 386.

[598] _Hist. Stirp. libri iv._, edition of Gesner, Argentorati, 1561. 209.

[599] _Libro de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales_, Sevilla, 1565.

[600] Thus Piso in 1658 describes the resin of an _Icica_ as exactly resembling _Elemi_ and quite as good for wounds.—_Hist. nat. et med. Ind. Occ._ 122.

[601] _Histoire des Drogues_, 1694, 261.

[602] Ray, _Hist. Plant._ iii (1704), appendix, p. 67. No. 13.—Compare also p. 60, No. 10.

[603] Thus in a drug sale, May 8, 1873, there were offered 275 cases, equal to about 480 cwt.

=Description=—Manila elemi is a soft, resinous substance, of granular consistence not unlike old honey, and when recent and quite pure is colourless; more often it is found contaminated with carbonaceous matter which renders it grey or blackish, and it is besides mixed with chips and similar impurities. By exposure to the air it becomes harder and acquires a yellow tint. It has a strong and pleasant odour suggestive of fennel and lemon, yet withal somewhat terebinthinous. When moistened with spirit of wine, it disintegrates, and examined under the microscope is seen to consist partly of acicular crystals. At the heat of boiling water the hardened drug softens, and at a somewhat higher temperature fuses into a clear resin.

=Chemical Composition=—Manila elemi is rich in essential oil. On submitting 28 lb. of it to distillation with water, we obtained 2 lb. 13 oz. (equivalent to 10 per cent.) of a fragrant, colourless, neutral oil, of sp. gr. 0·861 at 15° C. Observed in Wild’s polaristrobometer we found it to be strongly dextrogyre.[604] H. Sainte Claire Deville[605] on the other hand has examined an oil of elemi that was strongly levogyre. This discrepancy shows that there are among the oils of various kinds of elemi, differences similar to those existing in the oils of turpentine and copaiba. By the action of dry hydrochloric acid gas, Deville obtained from his oil of elemi a solid crystalline substance, C₁₀H₁₆ + 2 HCl. We failed to produce any such compound from the oil of Manila elemi. Our oil of elemi dissolves in bisulphide of carbon; when mixed with concentrated sulphuric acid, it becomes thick and assumes a deep orange colour.

By submitting the crude oil to fractional distillation, we separated it into six portions, of which the first five were dextrogyre in gradually diminishing degree, while the sixth displayed a weak deviation to the left.[606] The first portion having been dissolved in four times its weight of strong sulphuric acid, washed and again distilled, exhibit a deviation to the left.[607]

[604] I observed the following deviations:—

In a column of 25 mm from 47°·5 to 70°·5 (deviation 23°).
” ” 50 ” ” 93°·6 ( ” 46·1).
” ” 100 ” ” 49°·6 (2·1 + 90 = 92°·1).
—F. A. F.

[605] _Comptes Rendus_, xii (1841) 184.

[606] The following deviations were observed, in a column of 25 millimetres:—

Oil
distilled
at
1. 172°-180° C. from 47°·6 to 74°·5; deviation 26°·9 _right_.
2. 180°-183° ” 71°·2 ” 23°·6 ”
3. 183°-184°·5 ” 68°·8 ” 21°·2 ”
4. 184°-195° ” 65°·8 ” 18°·2 ”
5. 200°-230° ” 61°·0 ” 13°·4 ”
6. Thickish yellow ” 46°·2 ” 1°·4 _left_.
residue

[607] From 47°·6 to 46°.

If the essential oil of elemi (8 parts) is shaken with alcohol, 0·816 sp. gr. (2 parts), nitric acid, 1·2 sp. gr. (1 part) and water (5 parts), the mixture, on exposure to air in a shallow capsule soon yields large crystals, which were found to agree crystallographically[608] perfectly with terpin, C₁₀H₂₀O₂ + OH₂ from oil of turpentine.

Maujean,[609] a French pharmacien, examined Manila elemi as long ago as 1821 and proved it to contain two resins, the one soluble in cold, the other only in hot spirit of wine. The former, which appears to constitute by far the prevailing part of all varieties of elemi, has not yet been satisfactorily examined. Bonastre[610] a little latter made a more complete analysis, showing that the less soluble resin which he obtained to the extent of 25 per cent. is easily crystallizable, and apparently identical with a substance obtainable in a similar manner from what he regarded as true elemi, which the Manila resin was not then held to be. Baup (1851) gave it the name of _Amyrin_. According to our experiments, it is readily isolated to the extent of 20 per cent. when Manila elemi is treated with cold spirit of wine, in which the crystals of amyrin are but slightly soluble. If the elemi is pure, the amyrin may be thus obtained (by washing with spirit and pressure between bibulous paper) in a cake of snowy whiteness, which may be further purified by crystallization from boiling alcohol. The fusing point of the crystals is 177° C.; their composition has been ascertained by Buri[611] to agree with the formula C₂₅H₄₂O, which may be written thus: (C₅H₈)₅ OH₂. Amyrin at 16° C. dissolves in 27·5 parts of alcohol 0·816 sp. gr., being readily soluble also in all the usual solvents for resins. The alcoholic solution is slightly dextrogyre. Amyrin is a neutral substance, and may be sublimed in small quantities by very carefully heating it.

By heating amyrin with zinc dust Ciamician[612] obtained chiefly toluol, methyl-ethyl-benzol and ethyl-naphtalin.

By allowing an alcoholic solution of the amorphous resin of Manila elemi[613] to evaporate, Baup obtained in very small quantity crystals of _Bréine_, a substance fusing at 187° C., which he considered to be distinct from amyrin. In our opinion it was impure amyrin; it is extremely difficult, or rather practically impossible to extract all the crystallizable resin from the amorphous. If the latter, perfectly transparent, is kept for several years, an elegant crystallization at last begins to make its appearance throughout the bulk of the resin.

Baup further extracted from Manila elemi a crystallizable substance soluble in water to which he gave the name of _Bryoidin_,[614] and in smaller quantity a second also soluble in water which he called _Bréidine_. From the experiments of Baup it appears that bryoidin is soluble in 360 parts of water at 10° C., and melts at 135° C.; whereas bréidine requires for solution 260 parts of water and fuses at a temperature not much over 100° C.

[608] Examined at my request by Prof. Groth.—F. A. F..

[609] _Journ. de Pharm._ ix. (1823) 45. 47.

[610] _Id._ x. (1824) 199.

[611] _Pharm. Journ._ vii. (1876) 157, also _Yearbook of Ph._ 1877. 21.

[612] _Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft_, 1878. 1347.

[613] I am indebted for a specimen of the material that Baup worked upon and which he called _Resin of Arbol a brea_, to M. Roux, pharmacien of Nyon, Switzerland—F. A. F.

[614] From the Greek βρύον, in allusion to the moss-like aspect sometimes assumed by the crystals.

We have also obtained _Bryoidin_[615] by operating in the following manner: the watery liquid left in the still after the distillation of 28 lb. of Manila elemi was poured off from the mass of hard resin, and having been duly concentrated, it deposited together with a dark extractiform matter, colourless acicular crystals of bryoidin. The deposit in question having been drained and allowed to dry, the bryoidin may be separated by boiling water or by cold ether. We found the latter the more convenient; it readily takes up the bryoidin contaminated only with a little resin. The ethereal solution should be allowed to evaporate and the residual crystalline mass boiled in water, when the solution (which is colourless), poured off from the resin, will deposit upon cooling brilliant tufts of acicular crystals of bryoidin. The boiling in water requires to be several times repeated before the whole of the bryoidin can be removed; the latter sometimes crystallizes as a mossy arborescent growth. Bryoidin is a neutral substance, of bitter taste, scarcely soluble in cold water, but dissolving easily in boiling water, or in alcohol or ether. When a little is placed in a watch-glass, covered with a plate of glass, and then gently heated over a lamp, it sublimes in delicate needles. To obtain it perfectly pure, it is best to sublime it in a current of dry carbonic acid. Thus purified its fusing point is 133·5 C.; after fusion it concretes as a transparent, amorphous mass, which if immersed in glycerin and raised to the temperature of 135° C., suddenly crystallizes.

We have observed that if the filtered mother-liquor of bryoidin after complete cooling and standing for a day or two is warmed, it becomes turbid and that in a few minutes there separate from it long white flocks like bits of paper or wool, which do not disappear either by warming or by cooling the liquid; under the microscope they are seen to consist partly of thread-like, partly of acicular crystals. It is possible this substance is Baup’s _Bréidine_; we found it to fuse at 135° C., to be neutral, and to crystallize from weak alcohol exactly like bryoidin. Both it and bryoidin look very voluminous in water, but are extremely small in weight, and are present in the drug in but a very small amount. The composition of bryoidin agrees with the formula C₂₀H₃₈O₃, which might be written thus (C₅H₈)₄+3OH₂. But it contains no water of crystallization. In the vapour of dry hydrochloric gas, bryoidin assumes a fine red colour, turning violet, then blue, and lastly green. This behaviour is not at all displayed by amyrin.

The liquids from which bryoidin is obtained contain an amorphous brown substance of intensely bitter taste, at the same time somewhat aromatic. It is decomposed by dilute mineral acids, evolving a very peculiar strong odour.

Buri[616] isolated from Manila Elemi an extremely small amount of _Elemic acid_, C₃₅H₅₆O₄. It is in very brilliant crystals, much larger than those of the other constituents of elemi. Although we have before us some prisms of the acids several millimetres long, it has been found impossible to ascertain their crystallographic character, each of the prisms being formed of very intimately aggregated crystals. Elemic acid melts at 215° C.; its alcoholic solution decidedly reddens litmus. Elemate of potassium is a crystalline salt.

[615] Flückiger, _Pharm. Journ._ v. (1874) 142.

[616] _Pharm. Journ._ viii. (1878) 601.

The relations of the substances hitherto isolated from elemi may perhaps be given thus:—

Essential oil, C₅H₈.
Amyrin, (C₅H₈)₅ + OH₂
Amorphous resin (?) (C₅H₈)₂ + OH₂
Bryoidin, (C₅H₈)₄ + 3OH₂
Elemic acid, (C₅H₈)₇ + O₄

=Uses=—Elemi is scarcely used in British medicine except in the form of an ointment, sometimes prescribed as a stimulating application to old wounds.

=Other sorts of Elemi=—1. _Mexican Elemi_, _Vera Cruz Elemi_—This drug, which used to be imported into London about thirty years ago, but which has now disappeared from commerce, is the produce of a tree named by Royle _Amyris elemifera_ growing at Oaxaca in Mexico.[617] It is a light yellow, or whitish, brittle resin occurring in semi-cylindrical scraped pieces, or in irregular fragments which are sometimes translucent but more often dull and opaque. It easily softens in the mouth so that it may be masticated, and has an agreeable terebinthinous odour. Treated with cold spirit of wine (·828), it breaks down into a white magma of acicular crystals (_Amyrin_?).

2. _Brazilian Elemi_—Was described as long ago as 1658 by the traveller Piso, as a substance completely resembling the elemi of the Old World and applicable to the same purposes. It is the produce of several trees described as species of _Icica_, as _I. Icicariba_ DC.,[618] _I. heterophylla_ DC., _I. heptaphylla_ Aublet, _I. guianensis_ Aubl., _I. altissima_ Aubl.—In New Granada a similar exudation[619] is furnished by _I. Caranna_ H.B.K.

A specimen in our possession from Pernambuco[620] is a translucent, greenish yellow, fragrant, terebinthinous resin, which by cold spirit of wine may be separated into two portions, the one soluble, the other a mass of colourless acicular crystals. The resin spontaneously exuded and collected from the trunks, is often opaque and white, grey, or yellowish, looking not unlike fragments of old mortar. The microscope shows it to be made up of minute acicular crystals.[621]

3. _Mauritius Elemi_—Fine specimens of this substance and of _Colophonia Mauritiana_ DC. the tree affording it, were sent to one of us (H.) in 1855 by Mr. Emile Fleurot of Mauritius. The resin accords in its general characters with Manila elemi, like which it leaves after treatment with cold spirit of wine, an abundance of crystals resembling amyrin.

[617] Royle’s very imperfect specimens of this plant are in the British Museum.

[618] Now _Protium Icicariba_ Marchand, in _Flora Brasiliensis_, fascicul. 65 (1874) tab. liii.

[619] G. Planchon, _Bulletin de la Soc. Bot. de France_, xv. (1868) 16.

[620] Given me by Mr. Manley, late of Pernambuco. I have also an authentic specimen of the resin of _I. heterophylla_ collected at Santarem, Pará, by Mr. H. W. Bates in 1853.—D. H.

[621] For some experiments on the resin of _Icica_, see Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvi. (1866) 421.—Also Stenhouse and Groves, in Liebig’s _Annalen der Chemie_, 180 (1876) 253, on resin and oil of _Icica heptaphylla_. The former would appear to agree with the formula (C₅H₈)₉OH₂.

4. _Luban Meyeti_[622] or _Luban Mati._—This substance, which we claim to be the _Oriental_ or _African Elemi_ of the older writers, and also one of the resins anciently designated _Animi_,[623] is the exudation of _Boswellia Frereana_ Birdwood, a remarkable tree gregarious on the bare limestone hills near Bunder Murayah to the west of Cape Gardafui. The tree which is called _Yegaar_ by the natives, is of small stature, and differs from the other species of _Boswellia_ growing on the same coast in having glabrous, glaucous leaves with obtuse leaflets, crisped at the margin.[624] The bark is smooth, papery, and translucent, and easily stripped off in thin sheets which are used for writing on. Though growing wild, the trees are said by Capt. Miles[625] to be carefully watched and even sometimes propagated. The resin exudes after incision in great plenty, soon hardens, and is collected by the Somali tribes who dispose of it to traders for shipment to Jidda and ports of Yemen: occasionally a package reaches London among the shipments of olibanum. It is used in the East for chewing like mastich.

In modern times Luban Mati has been mentioned by Wellsted in his “Travels in Arabia” (1838).

_Luban Meyeti_ occurs in the form of detached droppy tears and fragments, occasionally in stalactitic masses several ounces in weight. It breaks very easily with a brilliant conchoidal fracture, showing an internal substance of a pale amber yellow and perfectly transparent. Externally it is more or less coated with a thin opaque white crust, which seen under the microscope appears non-crystalline. Many of the tears have pieces of the thin, brown, papery bark adhering to them. The resin has an agreeable odour of lemon and turpentine, and a mild terebinthinous taste.

Treated with alcohol (·838) it is almost entirely dissolved; the very small undissolved portion is not crystalline. The former agrees with the formula C₂₀H₃₀O₂. 20 lb. of Luban Mati yielded us 10 ounces of a volatile oil (= 3·1 per cent.) having a fragrant odour suggestive of elemi and sp. gr. 0·856 at 17° C. The oil examined in a column 50 millim. long, deviates the ray 2°·5 to the left. By fractional distillation we found it to consist of dextrogyre hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆, mixed with an oxygenated oil which we did not succeed in isolating; the latter is evidently lævogyre, and exists in proportion more than sufficient to overcome the weak dextrogyre power of the hydrocarbon.

There is no gum in this exudation; it is therefore essentially different from olibanum, the product of closely allied species of _Boswellia_.[626]

[622] _Lubán_ is the general Arabic name for olibanum: _meyeti_ perhaps from Jebel Meyet, a mountain of 1200 feet on the Somali Coast in long. 47° 10′.

[623] By the assistance of Professor G. Planchon we have ascertained that it is identically the same substance as described by Guibourt under the name _Tacamaque jaune huileuse_ A.—_Hist. des Drogues_, iii. (1850) 483.

[624] Figured in Birdwood’s paper, _Trans. Linn. Soc._ xxvii. (1870) tab. 32; also, (reduced) in Cooke’s report on the _Gums, Resins, etc., of the India Museum_, 1874, plate iv.

[625] _Journ. Geograph. Soc._ xlii. (1872) 61.

[626] Flückiger, on Luban Mati and Olibanum, _Pharm. Journ._ viii (1878) 805, with sketch map of the Somali Coast.

MELIACEÆ.

CORTEX MARGOSÆ.

_Cortex Azadirachtæ_; _Nim Bark_, _Margosa Bark_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Melia indica_ Brandis (_M. Azadirachta_ L., _Azadirachta indica_ Juss.), an ornamental tree, 40 to 50 feet high and attaining a considerable girth,[627] well known throughout India by its Hindustani name of _Nim_, or by its Portuguese appellation of _Margosa_.[628] It is much planted in avenues, but occurs wild in the forests of Southern India, Ceylon and the Malay Archipelago, as far as Java.[629]

The hard and heavy wood which is so bitter that no insect will attack it, the medicinal leaves and bark, the fruit which affords an acrid bitter oil used in medicine and for burning, the gum which exudes from the stem, and finally a sort of toddy obtained from young trees, cause the _Nim_ to be regarded as one of the most useful trees of India.

_M. indica_ is often confounded with _M. Azedarach_ L., a native of China,[630] and probably of India, now widely distributed throughout the warmer regions of the globe, and not rare even in Sicily and other parts of the south of Europe. The former has an oval fruit (by abortion) one-celled and one-seeded, and leaves simply pinnate. The latter has the fruit five-celled, and leaves bipinnate.

=History=—The tree under the Sanskrit name of _Nimba_ is mentioned in Susruta, one of the most ancient Hindu medical writings, composed perhaps about the 10th century of our era.

In common with many other productions of India, it attracted the notice of Garcia de Orta, physician to the Portuguese viceroy at Goa, and he published an account of it in his work on drugs in 1563.[631] Christoval Acosta[632] in 1578 supplied some further details and also a figure of the tree. The tonic properties of the bark, long recognized by the native physicians of India, were successively tested by Dr. D. White of Bombay in the beginning of the present century, and have since been generally admitted.[633] The drug has a place in the _Pharmacopœia of India_.

=Description=—The bark in our possession[634] is in coarse fibrous pieces about ⅕ of an inch thick and 2 to 3 inches wide, slightly channelled. The suberous coat is rough and cracked, and of a greyish rusty hue. The inner surface is of a bright buff and has a highly foliaceous structure. On making a transverse section three distinct layers may be observed—firstly the suberous coat exhibiting a large brown parenchyme interwoven with small bands of corky tissue,—secondly a dark cellular layer, and then the foliaceous liber. The dry bark is inodorous and has a slightly astringent bitter taste.

[627] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Medic. Plants_, part 27.

[628] From _amargoso_, bitter.

[629] C. De Candolle, in _Monogr. Phanerogamar._ i. (1878) 459.

[630] It is mentioned in Chinese writings dating long prior to the Christian era.—Bretschneider, _Chinese Botanical Works_, 1870. 12.

[631] _Colloquios dos Simples, &c._, Goa, 1563 _Colloq._ xl. p. 153.

[632] _Tractado de las Drogas y Medicinas de las Indias Orientales_, Burgos, 1578, cap. 43.

[633] Waring, in _Pharmacopœia of India_, 1868. 443.

[634] We are indebted for it to Mr. Broughton of Ootacamund.

=Microscopic Structure=—The suberous coat consists of numerous layers of ordinary cork-cells, which cover a layer of nearly cubic sclerenchymatous cells. This latter however is not always met with, secondary bands of cork (_rhytidoma_) frequently taking its place. The liber is commonly built up of strong fibre-bundles traversed by narrow medullary rays, and transversely separated by bands of parenchymatous liber tissue. Crystals of oxalate of calcium occur in the parenchyme more frequently than the small globular starch grains. The structure of the bark varies considerably according to the gradual development of the secondary cork-bands.

=Chemical Composition=—Margosa bark was chemically examined in India by Cornish[635] (1856), who announced it as a source of a bitter alkaloid to which he gave the name of _Margosine_, but which he obtained only in minute quantity as a “_double salt of Margosine and Soda_” in long white needles.

From the bitter oil of the seeds he isolated a substance which he called _Margosic Acid_, and which he doubted to be capable of affording crystallizable salts. The composition neither of this acid nor of margosine is known, nor have the properties of either been investigated.

The small sample of the bark at our disposal only enables us to add that an infusion produced with perchloride of iron a blackish precipitate, and that an infusion is not altered by tannic acid or iodohydrargyrate of potassium. If the inner layers of the bark are alone exhausted with water, the liquid affords an abundant precipitate with tannic acid; but if the _entire_ bark is boiled in water, the tannic matter which it contains will form an insoluble compound with the bitter principle, and prevent the latter being dissolved. It is thus evident that to isolate the bitter matter of the bark, it would be advisable to work on the liber or inner layers alone, which might readily be done, as they separate easily.

According to the recent researches of Broughton[636] the bitter principle is an amorphous resin soluble in the usual solvents and in boiling solutions of fixed alkalis. From the latter it is precipitated by acids, yet, probably, altered. Broughton ascribed the formula C₃₆H₅₀O₁₁ to this bitter resin purified by means of bisulphide of carbon, ether and absolute alcohol; it fused at 92° C. He obtained moreover a small quantity of a crystallized principle, which he believed to be a fatty body, yet its melting point of 175° C. is not in favour of this suggestion.

=Uses=—In India the bark is used as a tonic and antiperiodic, both by natives and Europeans. Dr. Pulney Andy of Madras has found the leaves beneficial in small-pox.

[635] _Indian Annals of Medical Science_, Calcutta, iv. (1857) 104.

[636] _Madras Monthly Journ. Med. Science_, quoted in _Pharm. Journ._ June 14, 1873, 992.

CORTEX SOYMIDA.

_Cortex Swieteniæ_; _Rohun Bark_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Soymida[637] febrifuga_ Juss. (_Swietenia febrifuga_ Willd.), a tree of considerable size not uncommon in the forests of Central and Southern India. The timber called by Europeans _Bastard Cedar_ is very durable and strong, and much valued for building purposes.

=History=—The introduction of Rohun Bark into the medical practice of Europeans is due to Roxburgh[638] who recommended the drug as a substitute for Cinchona, after numerous trials made in India about the year 1791. At the same time he sent supplies to Edinburgh, where Duncan made it the subject of a thesis[639] which probably led to it being introduced into the materia medica of the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia of 1803, and of the Dublin Pharmacopœia of 1807.

Though thus officially recognized, it does not appear that the bark came much into use or by any other means fulfilled the expectations raised in its favour. At present it is regarded simply as a useful astringent tonic, and as such it has a place in the _Pharmacopœia of India_ (1868).

=Description=—Our specimen of Rohun bark[640] which is from a young tree, is in straight or somewhat curved, half-tubular quills, an inch or more in diameter and about ⅕ of an inch in thickness. Externally it is of a rusty grey or brown, with a smoothish surface exhibiting no considerable furrows or cracks, but numerous small corky warts. These form little elliptic scars or rings, brown in the centre and but slightly raised from the surface. The inner side and edges of the quills are of a bright reddish colour.

A transverse section exhibits a thin outer layer coloured by chlorophyll, and a middle layer of a bright rusty hue, traversed by large medullary rays and darker wedge-shaped rays of liber. The latter has a fibrous fracture, that of the outer part of the bark being rather corky or foliaceous. The whole bark when comminuted is of a rusty colour, becoming reddish by exposure to air and moisture. It has a bitter astringent taste with no distinctive odour. The older bark frequently half an inch thick and fibrous, has a thick ragged corky layer of a rusty blackish-brown colour, deeply fissured longitudinally, and minutely cracked transversely. Old bark, according to Dymock (1877), is generally in half quills of a rich red-brown colour.

=Microscopic Structure=—The bark presents but few structural peculiarities. The ring of liber is made up of alternating prosenchymatous and parenchymatous tissue. In the latter the larger cells are filled with mucilage, the others with starch. The prosenchymatous groups of the liber exhibit that peculiar form we have already described as _hornbast_ (p. 74); it chiefly contains the tannic matter, besides stellate crystals of oxalate of calcium which are distributed through the whole tissue of the bark. The medullary rays are of the usual form, and contain starch granules. The corky coat is built up of a smaller number of vaulted cells.

[637] From _Sómida_, the Teluga name of the tree; _Róhan_ is its name in Hindustani.—Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 18 (1877).—See also C. De Candolle, in _Monogr. Phanerogamar._ i. (1878) 722.

[638] _Medical Facts and Observations_, Lond. vi. (1795) 127.

[639] _Tentamen inaugurale de Swieteniâ Soymidâ_, Edinb. 1794.

[640] Kindly sent us by Mr. Broughton of Ootacamund.

=Chemical Composition=[641]—The bitter principle of the bark has been ascertained by Broughton[642] to be a nearly colourless resinous substance, sparingly soluble in water but more so in alcohol, ether, or benzol. It does not appear to unite with acids or bases, and is less soluble in water containing them than in pure water. It has a very bitter taste, and refuses to crystallize either from benzol or ether. It contains no nitrogen. To this we may add that the bark is rich in tannic acid.

=Uses=—Rohun bark is administered in India as an astringent tonic and antiperiodic, and is reported useful in intermittent fevers and general debility, as well as in the advanced stages of dysentery and in diarrhœa.

RHAMNACEÆ.

FRUCTUS RHAMNI.

_Baccæ Rhamni, Baccæ Spinæ cervinæ; Buckthorn Berries_; F. _Baies de Neprun_; G. _Kreuzdornbeeren_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Rhamnus cathartica_ L., a robust diœcious shrub with spreading branches, the smaller of which often terminate in a stout thorn. It is indigenous to Northern Africa, the greater part of Europe, and stretches eastward to the Caucasus and into Siberia. We have seen stems 50 years old, having a diameter of 8 inches, sent from the government of Cherson, Southern Russia. In England the buckthorn though generally distributed is abundant only in certain districts; in Scotland it occurs wild in but a single locality. Yet in Norway, Sweden, and Finland it grows much further north.

The fruit which ripens in the autumn is collected for use chiefly in the counties of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and also from Wiltshire. The collectors usually prefer to supply the juice as expressed by themselves.

=History=—The Buckthorn was well known to the Anglo-Saxons, and is mentioned as _Hartsthorn_ or _Waythorn_ in their medical writings and glossaries dating before the Norman conquest. The Welsh physicians of Myddfai (“Meddygon Myddvai”) in the 13th century prescribed the juice of the fruit of buckthorn boiled with honey as an aperient drink.

As _Spina Cervina_ the shrub is referred to by Piero de’ Crescenzi of Bologna[643] about A.D. 1305.

[641] The analysis alluded to in the _Pharm. of India_ (p. 444) concerns _Khaya_ (_Swietenia_) _senegalensis_, and not the present species, as my friend Dr. Overbeck has informed me.—F. A. F.

[642] Beddome, _Flora Sylvatica_, Madras, part i. (1869) 8,—also information communicated direct.

[643] _Trattato dall’ Agricoltura_, Milano, 1805, 10. iii. c. 58.

The medicinal use of the berries was familiar to all the writers on botany and materia medica of the 16th century. Syrup of buckthorn first appeared in the London Pharmacopœia of 1650; it was aromatized by means of aniseed, cinnamon, mastich and nutmeg.

=Description=—The fruits, which are only used in the fresh state, are small, juicy, spherical drupes the size of a pea, black and shining, bearing on the summit the remnants of the style, and supported below by a slender stalk expanded into a disc-like receptacle. Before ripening the fruit is green and distinctly 4-lobed, afterwards smooth and plump. It contains 4 one-seeded nuts[644] meeting at right angles in the middle. The seed is erect with a broad furrow on the back: in transverse section the albumen and cotyledons are seen to be curved into a horseshoe form with the ends directed outwards.

The fresh juice is green, has an acid reaction and a sweetish, afterwards disagreeably bitter taste, and repulsive odour. It is coloured dingy green by ferric chloride, yellow by alkalis, red by acids. According to Umney[645] it should have a sp. gr. of 1·070 to 1·075, but is seldom sold pure. By keeping the juice gradually turns red.

=Microscopic Structure=—The epidermis consists of small tabular cells, followed by a row of large cubic cells and then by several layers of tangentially-extended cells rich in chlorophyll. This thick epicarp passes into the loose thin-walled and large-celled sarocarp. Besides chlorophyll it exhibits numerous cells each containing a kind of sac, which may be squeezed out of the cell. These sacs are violet, turning blue with alkalis. Similar, yet much more conspicuous bodies occur also in the pulp of the Locust Bean (_Ceratonia Siliqua_ L.).

=Chemical Composition=—The berries of buckthorn and other species of _Rhamnus_ contain interesting colouring matters, which have been the subject of much chemical research and controversy. Winckler in 1849 extracted from the juice _Rhamnocathartin_, a yellowish uncrystallizable bitter substance, soluble in water but not in ether. Alkalis colour it golden yellow; perchloride of iron, dark greenish brown.

In 1840 Fleury, a pharmacien of Pontoise, discovered in buckthorn juice a yellow substance forming cauliflower-like crystals to which he gave the name of _Rhamnine_. This body has been recently studied by Lefort,[646] who identified it with the _Rhamnetine_ of Galletly (1858) and the _Chrysorhamnine_ of Schützenberger and Bertèche (1865). Though obtainable from the berries of all kinds of _Rhamnus_ used in dyeing (including the common buckthorn), it is got most easily and abundantly from Persian Berries. When pure, and crystallized from absolute alcohol, it is described as forming minute yellow translucent tables. It is scarcely soluble in cold water, though colouring it pale yellow; is soluble in hot alcohol, insoluble in ether or bisulphide of carbon. It is very soluble in caustic alkalis, forming uncrystallizable reddish-yellow solutions. From alkaline solutions it is precipitated by a mineral acid in the form of a glutinous magma resembling hydrated silica. Lefort assigns to it the formula C₁₂H₁₂O₅ + 2H₂O.

[644] In _Rh. Frangula_ L., the other British species, the fruit has 2 nuts.

[645] _Pharm. Journ._ Nov. 23 (1872) 404, and July 11 (1874) 21.

[646] _Sur les graines des Nerpruns tinctoriaux._—_Journ. de Pharm._ iv. (1866) 420.—See also the investigations of Liebermann and Hörmann, 1879.

This chemist has likewise found in the berries of _Rhamnus_, though not with certainty in those of _R. cathartica_, a neutral substance isomeric with rhamnine, to which he has given the name of _Rhamnegine_. Unlike rhamnine it is very soluble in cold water, but in all other respects it agrees with that body in chemical and physical properties. The two substances have the same taste, almost the same tint, the same crystalline form, and lastly they give rise to the same reactions with chemical agents.

The conclusions of Lefort have been contested by Stein (1868) and by Schützenberger (1868), the latter of whom succeeded in decomposing rhamnegine and proving it a glucoside having the formula C₂₄H₃₂O₁₄. Its decomposition gives rise to a body named _Rhamnetin_, C₁₂H₁₀O₅, and a crystallizable sugar isomeric with mannite. Schützenberger admits that the berries contain an isomeric modification of rhamnegine; but in addition another colouring matter insoluble in water, which appears to be the _Rhamnine_ of Lefort, but to which he assigns a different formula, namely, C₁₈H₂₂O₁₀. This is also a glucoside capable of being split into rhamnetin and a sugar. There are thus, according to Schützenberger, two forms of rhamnegine which may be distinguished as α and β, and there is the substance insoluble in water, named by Lefort _Rhamnine_.

The question of the purgative principles of buckthorn, it will be observed, has not been touched by all these researches.

=Uses=—From the juice of the berries is prepared a syrup having strongly purgative properties, much more used as a medicine for animals than for man. The pigment _Sap Green_ is also made from the juice.

AMPELIDEÆ.

UVÆ PASSÆ.

_Passulæ majores_; _Raisins_; F. _Raisins_; G. _Rosinen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Vitis vinifera_ L., the Common Grape-vine. It appears to be indigenous to the Caucasian provinces of Russia, that is to say, to the country lying between the eastern end of the Black Sea and the south-western shores of the Caspian; extending thence southward into Armenia. Under innumerable varieties, it is cultivated in most of the warmer and drier countries of the temperate regions of both the northern and southern hemispheres. Humboldt defines the area of the profitable culture of the vine as a zone lying between 36° and 40° of north latitude.

=History=—The vine is among the oldest of cultivated plants, and is mentioned in the earliest Mosaic writings. _Dried_ grapes as distinguished from _fresh_ were used by the ancient Hebrews, and in the Vulgate are translated _Uvæ passæ_.[647] During the middle ages, raisins were an article of luxury imported into England from Spain.

[647] Numbers vi. 3; 1 Sam. xxv. 18, xxx. 12; 2 Sam. xvi. 1; 1 Chron. xii. 40.