Chapter XXV: Part 25

=Microscopic Structure=—On the longitudinal section, especially in a tangential direction, the brownish zones are seen to contain laticiferous vessels, only about 2 mkm. in diameter. These traverse their zones in a vertical direction, giving off numerous lateral branches, which however remain always confined to their zone. Within each of these zones, the lacticiferous vessels form consequently an anastomosing net. We may say that the root is thus vertically traversed by about 10 to 20 concentric rings of lacticiferous vessels.[1449] They may be made beautifully evident by means of anilin-blue, with which a thin longitudinal section of the fresh root may be moistened. The root must be allowed to partially dry, but only till the milky juice coagulates; the thin slice then energetically absorbs the colouring matter.[1450]

[1445] Perhaps from τράζυνον or τρόξμνον signifying _Wild Lettuce_; according to some, from τάραξις, a disease of the eye which the plant was used to cure, or from the verb τάρασσω, _I disturb_.

[1446] _Herbarius zu teutsch und von aller handt kreuteren_, Augspurg, 1488. cap. clii.

[1447] The _Physicians of Myddvai_, 284 (see Appendix).

[1448] Thus 5496 lb. of the washed root afforded of dry only 1277 lb., or 23·2 per cent.—Information communicated by Messrs. Allen and Hanburys, London.

[1449] For further particulars about them, see Vogl, _Sitzungsber. der Wiener Akademie_, vi. (1863) 668 with plate; Hanstein, _Milchsaftgefässe und verwandte Organe der Rinde_, Berlin, 1864. 72. 73. pl. ix.

[1450] The reader who is not familiar with this process may refer to a paper by Pocklington in _Pharm. Journ._ April 13, 1872. 822.

The tissue of the dried root is loaded with inulin, which does not occur in the solid form in the living plant. The woody part of taraxacum root is made up of large scalariform vessels accompanied by parenchymatous tissue, the former much prevailing.

=Chemical Composition=—The fresh milky juice of dandelion is bitter and neutral, but it soon acquires an acid reaction and reddish brown tint, at the same time coagulating with separation of masses of what has been called by Kromayer (1861), _Leontodonium_. This chemist, by treating this substance with hot water, obtained a bitter solution yielding an active (?) principle to animal charcoal, from which it was removed by means of boiling spirit of wine. After the evaporation of the alcohol, Kromayer purified the liquid by addition of basic acetate of lead, saturation of the filtered solution with sulphuretted hydrogen and evaporation to dryness. The residue then yielded to ether an acrid resin, and left a colourless amorphous mass of intensely bitter taste, named by Kromayer _Taraxacin_. Polex (1839) obtained apparently the same principle in warty crystals; he simply boiled the milky juice with water and allowed the concentrated decoction to evaporate.

The portion of the “_Leontodonium_,” not dissolved by water, yields to alcohol a crystalline substance, Kromayer’s _Taraxacerin_, C₈H₁₆O. It resembles lactucerin and has in alcoholic solution an acrid taste. How far the medicinal value of dandelion is dependent on the substances thus extracted, is not yet known.

Dragendorff (1870) obtained from the root gathered near Dorpat in October and dried at 100° C., 24 per cent. of _Inulin_ and some sugar. The root collected in March from the same place yielded only 1·74 per cent. of inulin, 17 of uncrystallizable sugar and 18·7 of _Levulin_. The last named substance, discovered by Dragendorff, has the same composition as inulin, but dissolves in cold water; the solution tastes sweetish, and is devoid of any rotatory power. Inulin is often to be seen as a glistening powder when extract of taraxacum is dissolved in water.

T. and H. Smith of Edinburgh (1849) have shown that the juice of the root by a short exposure to the air undergoes a sort of fermentation which results in the abundant formation of _Mannite_, not a trace of which is obtainable from the perfectly fresh root. Sugar which readily underwent the vinous fermentation was found by the same chemists in considerable quantity.

The leaves and stalks of dandelion (but not the roots) were found by Marmé (1864) to afford the _Inosite_, C₆H₁₂O + 2 OH.

The root collected in the meadows near Bern immediately before flowering, carefully washed and dried at 100° C., yielded us 5·24 per cent. of ash, which we found to consist of carbonates, phosphates, sulphates, and in smaller quantity also of chlorides.

=Uses=—Taraxacum is much employed as a mild laxative and tonic, especially in hepatic disorders.

=Adulteration=—The roots of _Leontodon hispidus_ L. (Common Hawkbit) have occasionally been supplied by fraudulent herb-gatherers in place of dandelion. Both plants have runcinate leaves, but those of hawkbit are hairy, while those of dandelion are smooth. The (fresh) root of the former is tough, breaking with difficulty and rarely exuding any milky juice.[1451]

The dried root of dandelion is exceedingly liable to the attacks of maggots, and should not be kept beyond one season.

HERBA LACTUCÆ VIROSÆ.

_Prickly Lettuce_; F. _Laitue vireuse_; G. _Giftlattich_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Lactuca virosa_ L.,[1452] a tall herb occurring on stony ground, banks and roadsides, throughout Western, Central and Southern Europe. It is abundant in the Spanish Peninsula and in France, but in Britain is only thinly scattered, reaching its northern limit in the south-eastern Highlands of Scotland.

=History=—The introduction of this lettuce into modern medicine is due to Collin (the celebrated physician of Vienna, mentioned in our article on Rad. Arnicæ, p. 390), who about the year 1771 recommended the inspissated juice in the treatment of dropsy. In long standing cases, this extract was given to the extent of half an ounce a day.

The College of Physicians of Edinburgh inserted _Lactuca virosa_ L. in their pharmacopœia of 1792, while in England its place was taken by the Garden Lettuce, _L. sativa_ L. The Authors of the _British Pharmacopœia_ of 1867 have discarded the latter, and directed that _Extractum Lactucæ_ shall be prepared by inspissating the juice of _L. virosa_.

=Description=—The plant is biennial, producing in its first year depressed obovate undivided leaves, and in its second a solitary upright stem, 3 to 5 feet high, bearing a pinacle of small, pale yellow flowers, resembling those of the Garden Lettuce. The stem, which is cylindrical and a little prickly below, has scattered leaves growing horizontally; they are of a glaucous green, ovate-oblong, often somewhat lobed, auricled, clasping, with the margin provided with irregular spinescent teeth, and midrib white and prickly. The whole plant abounds in a bitter, milky juice of strong, unpleasant, opiate smell.

=Chemical Composition=—We are not aware of any modern chemical examination having been made of _Lactuca virosa_. The more important constituents of the plant are those found in _Lactucarium_, to the article on which the reader is referred.

=Uses=—The inspissated expressed juice of the fresh plant is reputed narcotic and diuretic, but is probably nearly inert.

[1451] Giles, _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1851) 107.

[1452] Bentham unites this plant with _L. Scariola_ L., but in most works on botany they are maintained as distinct species.

LACTUCARIUM.

_Lactucarium_, _Lettuce Opium_, _Thridace_;[1453] F. and G. _Lactucarium_.

=Botanical Origin=—The species of _Lactuca_ from which lactucarium is obtained, are three or four in number, namely—

1. _Lactuca virosa_ L., described in the foregoing article.

2. _L. Scariola_ L., a plant very nearly allied to the preceding and perhaps a variety of it, but having the foliage less abundant, more glaucous, leaves more sharply lobed, much more erect and almost parallel with the stem. It has the same geographical range as _L. virosa_.

3. _L. altissima_ Bieb., a native of the Caucasus, now cultivated in Auvergne in France for yielding lactucarium. It is a gigantic herb, having when cultivated a height of 9 feet and a stem 1½ inches in diameter. Prof. G. Planchon believes it to be a mere variety of _L. Scariola_ L.

4. _L. sativa_ L., the common Garden Lettuce.[1454]

=History=—Dr. Coxe of Philadelphia was the first to suggest that the juice of the lettuce, collected in the same manner as opium is collected from the poppy, might be usefully employed in medicine. The result of his experiments on the juice which he thus obtained from the garden lettuce (_L. sativa_ L.), and called _Lettuce Opium_, was published in 1799.[1455]

The experiments of Coxe were continued some years later by Duncan, Young, Anderson, Scudamore and others in Scotland, and by Bidault de Villiers and numerous observers in France. The production of lactucarium in Auvergne was commenced[1456] by Aubergier, pharmacien of Clermont-Ferrand, about 1841.

=Secretion=—All the green parts of the plant are traversed by a system of vessels, which when wounded, especially during the period of flowering, instantly exude a white milky juice. The stem, at first solid and fleshy but subsequently hollow, owes its rigidity to a circle of about 30 fibro-vascular bundles, each of which includes a cylinder of cambium. At the boundary between this tissue and the primary cortical parenchyme, is situated the system of milk-vessels, exhibiting on transverse section a single or double circle of thin-walled tubes, the cavities of which contain dark brown masses of coagulated juice. In longitudinal section, they appear branched and transversely bound together, as in the milk-vessels of taraxacum. The larger of these tubes, 35 mkm. in diameter, correspond pretty regularly in position with the vascular bundles. Each of the latter is also separated from the pith by a band or arch of cambium, in the circumference of which isolated smaller milk-vessels occur.

The system of milk-vessels[1457] is therefore double, belonging to the pith on the one side, and to the bark on the other, the two being separated by juiceless wood. The milk-vessels of the bark are covered by only 2 to 6 rows of parenchyme-cells of the middle bark, rapidly decreasing in size from within outwards, and these are protected by a not very thick-walled epidermis. Hence it is easy to understand how the slightest puncture or incision may reach the very richest milk-cells.

[1453] The term Thridace is also applied to _Extract of Lettuce_.

[1454] The authors of the French _Codex_ of 1866 name as the source of lactucarium that form of the garden lettuce which has been called by DeCandolle _Lactuca capitata_. Maisch has obtained lactucarium from _L. elongata_ Mühl. (_Am. Journ. of Pharm._ 1869. 148).

[1455] Inquiry into the comparative effects of the _Opium officinarum_, extracted from the _Papaver somniferum_ or _White Poppy_ of Linnæus, and that procured from the _Lactuca sativa_ or _Common cultivated Lettuce_ of the same author.—_Transact. of the American Philosophical Society_, iv. (1799) 387.

[1456] _Comptes Rendus_, xv. (1842) 923.

[1457] Beautifully delineated by Hanstein in the work referred to at p. 352, note 2; see also Trécul, _Ann. des Sciences nat. Bot._ v. (1866) 69; Dippel, _Entstehung der Milchsaftgefässe_, Rotterdam, 1865. tab. 1. fig. 17.

The drops of milky juice, when exposed to the air, quickly harden to small yellowish-brown masses, whitish within.

=Collection and Description=—Lactucarium has been especially collected since about the year 1845, in the neighbourhood of the small town of Zell on the Mosel between Coblenz and Trèves in Rhenish Prussia. The introduction of this industry is due to Mr. Goeris, apothecary of that place, to whom we are indebted for the following information, and for some further particulars, to Mr. Meurer of Zell.

The plant is grown in gardens, where it produces a stem only in its second year. In May just before it flowers, its stem is cut off at about a foot below the top, after which a transverse slice is taken off daily until September. The juice, which is pure white but readily becomes brown on the surface, is collected from the wounded top by the finger, and transferred to hemispherical earthen cups, in which it quickly hardens so that it can be turned out. It is then dried in the sunshine until it can be cut into four pieces, when the drying is completed by exposure to the air for some weeks on frames.

At Zell, 300 to 400 kilogrammes (661 to 882 lb.) of lactucarium are annually produced; the whole district furnishes at best but 20 quintals annually. The price the drug fetches on the spot varies from 4 to 10 thalers per kilogramme (about 6_s._ to 14_s._ per lb.) In the Eifel district, where lactucarium was formerly collected, none is now produced.

As found in trade, German lactucarium consists of angular pieces formed as already described, but rendered more or less shrunken and irregular by loss of moisture and by fracture. Externally they are of a dull reddish-brown, internally opaque and wax-like, and when recent, of a creamy white. By exposure to the air, this white becomes yellow and then brown. Lactucarium has a strong unpleasant odour, suggestive of opium, and a very bitter taste.

The lactucarium produced by Aubergier of Clermont-Ferrand is of excellent quality, but does not appear to differ from that obtained on the Mosel, except that it is in circular cakes about 1½ inches in diameter, instead of in angular lumps.

Scotch lactucarium, which was formerly the only sort found in the market, is still (1872) met with. Mr. Fairgrieve, who produces it in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, collects the juice into little tin vessels, in which it quickly thickens; it is then turned out and dried with a gentle heat, the drug being broken up as the process of drying goes on. It is thus obtained in irregular earthy-looking lumps of a deep brown hue, of which the larger may be about an inch in length. In smell, it exactly resembles the drug collected on the Continent.[1458]

[1458] We are indebted to Mr. H. C. Baildon for a specimen of Scotch lactucarium collected about the year 1844, and to Messrs. T. and H. Smith for a sample of Mr. Fairgrieve’s article.

We have also before us Austrian lactucarium, prepared at Waidhofen on the Thaya, where about 35 kilogrammes are annually produced. It is in fine tears of vigorous smell.

We are unacquainted with Russian lactucarium, which has been quoted at a very high price in some continental lists.

=Chemical Composition=—Lactucarium is a mixture of very different organic substances, together with 8 to 10 per cent. of inorganic matter. It is not completely taken up by any solvent, and when heated merely softens but does not melt. Nearly half the weight of lactucarium consists of a substance called _Lactucerin_ or _Lactucon_, which in our opinion is closely allied to if not identical with similar substances occurring in numerous milky juices. Lactucerin as afforded by the drug under examination is probably a mixture of several bodies. It may be obtained by exhausting lactucarium with boiling alcohol sp. gr. 0·830; it is deposited in crystals, which when duly purified have the form of slender colourless, microscopic needles. Lactucerin is an inodorous, tasteless substance, insoluble in water, but dissolving in ether and in oils both fixed and volatile, not quite so readily either in benzol, or in bisulphide of carbon. We found it to melt at 232° C. and to agree with the formula C₁₉H₃₀O; Franchimont (1879) assigns to it the formula C₁₄H₂₄O, melting point 296°.

Euphorbon (see Euphorbium), echicerin (see Cortex Alstoniæ), taraxacerin (p. 394), the cynanchol, C₁₅H₂₄O, extracted in 1875 by Buttleroff from _Cynanchum acutum_ L., are remarkably analogous to lactucerin.

In the lactucarium of Zell, we further met with a large amount of a substance which is readily soluble in bisulphide of carbon. It is an amorphous mass, melting below 100°, separating from alcohol as a syrupy mass.

Cold alcohol, as well as boiling water, takes out of lactucarium about 0·3 per cent. of a crystallizable bitter substance, _Lactucin_, C₁₁H₁₂O₃H₂O, which although it reduces alkaline cupric tartrate, is not a glucoside. It may be best obtained by means of dialyse. Lactucin forms white pearly scales, readily soluble in acetic acid, but insoluble in ether. It loses its bitterness when treated with an alkali.

From the mother-liquors that have yielded lactucin, Ludwig, in 1847, obtained _Lactucic Acid_, as an amorphous light yellow mass, becoming crystalline after long standing. Lastly lactucarium has further afforded in small quantity an amorphous substance named _Lactucopicrin_, C₄₄H₆₄O₂₁, apparently produced from lactucin by oxidation; it is stated by Kromayer (1862) to be soluble in water or alcohol, and to be very bitter.

Of the widely diffused constituents of plants, lactucarium contains caoutchouc (40-50 per cent.), gum, oxalic, citric, malic and succinic acids, sugar, mannite, and asparagin, together with potassium, calcium and magnesium salts of nitric and phosphoric acids. We obtained crystals of nitrate of potassium by concentrating the aqueous decoction of lactucarium. On distillation with water, a volatile oil having the odour of lactucarium passes over in very small quantity.

=Uses=—The soporific powers universally ascribed in ancient times to the lettuce are supposed to exist in a concentrated form in lactucarium. Yet numerous experiments have failed to show that this substance possesses more than very slight sedative properties, if indeed it is not absolutely inert.[1459]

LOBELIACEÆ.

HERBA LOBELIÆ.

_Lobelia_, _Indian Tobacco_; F. _Lobelie enflée_; G. _Lobeliakraut_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Lobelia inflata_ L., an annual herb, 9 to 18 inches high, with an angular upright stem, simple or more frequently branching near the top, widely diffused throughout the eastern part of North America from Canada to the Mississippi, growing in neglected fields, along roadsides, and on the edges of woods, and thriving well in European gardens.

=History=—_Lobelia inflata_ was described and figured by Linnæus[1460] from specimens cultivated by him at Upsala about 1741, but he does not attribute to the plant any medicinal virtues.

The aborigines of North America made use of the herb, which from this circumstance and its acrid taste, came to be called _Indian Tobacco_. In Europe it was noticed by Schöpf,[1461] but with little appreciation of its powers. In America it has long been in the hands of quack doctors, but its value in asthma was set forth by Cutler in 1813. It was not employed in England until about 1829, when, with several other remedies, it was introduced to the medical profession by Reece.[1462]

=Description=—The leaves are 1 to 3 inches long, scattered, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, rather acute, obscurely toothed, somewhat pubescent. The edge of the leaf bears small whitish glands, and between them isolated hairs which are more frequent on the under than on the upper surface. They are usually in greater abundance on the lower and middle portions of the stem.

The stem of the growing plant exudes when wounded a small quantity of acrid milky juice, contained in laticiferous vessels running also into the leaves. The inconspicuous blossoms are arranged in a many-flowered, terminal, leafy raceme. The five-cleft, bilabiate corolla is bluish with a yellow spot on the under lip, its tube being as long as the somewhat divergent limb of the calyx.

The capsule is ovoid, inflated, ten-ribbed, crowned by five elongated sepals which are half as long as the ripe fruit. The latter is two-celled, and contains a large number of ovate-oblong seeds about ¹/₅₀ of an inch in length, having a reticulated, pitted surface.

The herb found in commerce is in the form of rectangular cakes, 1 to 1¾ inches thick, consisting of the yellowish-green chopped herb, compressed as it would seem while still moist, and afterwards neatly trimmed. The cakes arrive wrapped in paper, sealed up and bearing the label of some American druggist or herb-grower.

[1459] Stillé, _Therapeutics and Mat. Med._ i. (1868) 756. Garrod (_Med. Times and Gazette_, 26 March, 1864), gave lactucarium in drachm doses, repeated 3 or 4 times a day, without being able to perceive that it had any effect either as an anodyne or hypnotic.

[1460] _Acta Soc. Reg. Scient. Upsal._ 1746. 23.

[1461] _Mat. Med. Americana_, Erlangæ, 1787. 128.

[1462] _Treatise on the Bladder-podded Lobelia_, Lond. 1829.

Lobelia has a herby smell and, after being chewed, a burning acrid taste resembling that of tobacco.

=Chemical Composition=—Lobelia has been examined by Procter, Pereira (1842), Reinsch (1843), Bastick (1851), also by F. F. Mayer.[1463] The first-named chemist[1464] traced the activity of the plant to an alkaloid which he termed _Lobelina_, and his observations were confirmed by the independent experiments of Bastick.[1465] Lewis (1878) obtained it by mixing the drug with charcoal and exhausting the powder with water containing a little acetic acid. The liquid is cautiously evaporated to the consistency of an extract and triturated with magnesia, from the excess of which the aqueous solution of lobeline is separated by filtration. It is agitated with amylic alcohol (or ether), which by spontaneous evaporation affords the alkaloid. The latter is again dissolved in water and filtered through animal charcoal; from the dried powder lobeline is to be removed by ether.

Lobeline is an oily, yellowish fluid with a strong alkaline reaction, especially when in solution. In the pure state it smells slightly of the plant, but more strongly when mixed with ammonia. Its taste is pungent and tobacco-like, and when taken in minute doses, it exercises in a potent manner the poisonous action of the drug. Lobeline is to some extent volatile, but its decomposition begins when it is heated to 100° C. either pure or in presence of dilute acids or caustic alkalis. Lobeline dissolves in water, but more readily in alcohol or ether, the latter of which is capable of removing it from its aqueous solution. It neutralizes acids, forming with some of them crystallizable salts, soluble in water or alcohol.

The herb likewise contains traces of essential oil (the _Lobelianin_ of Pereira?), resin and gum. The seeds afforded Procter about 30 per cent. of fixed oil, sp. gr. 0·940, which was found to dry very rapidly. The _Lobeliin_ of Reinsch appears to be an indefinite compound.

In 1871 Enders at our request performed some researches on Lobelia in order to isolate the acrid substance to which the herb owes its taste. He exhausted the drug with spirit of wine and distilled the liquid in presence of charcoal, which then retained the acrid principle. The charcoal was washed with water, and then treated with boiling alcohol. This on evaporation yielded a green extract, which was further purified by means of chloroform. Warty tufts were thus finally obtained, yet always of a brownish colour. The tufts are readily soluble in ether and chloroform, but only slightly in water; they possess the acrid taste of lobelia. This substance, which we may term _Lobelacrin_, is decomposed if merely boiled with water; by the influence of alkalis or acids it is resolved into sugar and _Lobelic Acid_. The latter is soluble in ether, water, and alcohol, and is non-volatile; it yields a soluble salt with baryum oxide, whereas its plumbic salt is insoluble in water.

[1463] _American Journ. of Pharm._ xxxvii. (1866) 209; also _Jahresbericht_ of Wiggers and Husemann, 1866. 252.

[1464] _Am. Journ. of Pharm._ iii. (1838) 98; vii. (1841) 1; _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1851) 456.

[1465] _Pharm. Journ._ x. (1851) 270.

Lewis suggests that lobelacrin is nothing else than _lobeliate of lobeline_, which he believes to exist ready formed in the plant. From a decoction of the drug, on addition of sulphate of copper, lobeliate of copper is precipitated. By decomposing the latter with sulphuretted hydrogen, concentrating the solution and shaking it with warm ether, Lewis obtained a yellow solution affording on evaporation a crystalline mass of lobelic acid.

=Uses=—Lobelia is a powerful nauseating emetic; in large doses an acro-narcotic poison. It is prescribed in spasmodic asthma.

ERICACEÆ.

FOLIA UVÆ URSI.

_Bearberry Leaves_; F. _Feuilles de Busserole_; G. _Bärentraubenblätter_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi_ Sprengel (_A. officinalis_ Wimmer et Grabowsky, _Arbutus Uva-ursi_ L.), a small, procumbent, evergreen shrub, distributed over the greater part of the northern hemisphere. It occurs in North America, Iceland, Northern Europe, and Russian Asia, and on the chief mountain chains of Central and Southern Europe. In Britain it is confined to Scotland, the north of England, and Ireland.

=History=—The bearberry was used in the 13th century by the Welsh “Physicians of Myddfai,” described by Clusius in 1601, and recommended for medicinal use in 1763 by Gerhard of Berlin and others.[1466] It had a place in the London Pharmacopœia for the first time in 1788.

=Description=—The leaves are dark green, ¾ to 1 inch in length by ²/₈ to ⅜ of an inch in breadth, obovate, rounded at the end, gradually narrowed into a short petiole. They are entire, with the margin a little reflexed, and in the young state slightly pubescent, otherwise the whole leaf is smooth, glabrous, and coriaceous; the upper surface shining, deeply impressed with a network of veins; the under minutely reticulated with dark veins.[1467] The leaves have a very astringent taste, and when powdered a tea-like smell.

=Chemical Composition=—Kawalier (1852) has shown that a decoction of bearberry treated with basic acetate of lead yields a gallate of that metal, thus proving that gallic acid exists ready-formed in the leaves. When the filtrate, freed from lead by sulphuretted hydrogen, is properly concentrated, it deposits acicular crystals of _Arbutin_, a bitter neutral substance, easily soluble in hot water, less so in cold, dissolving in alcohol, but sparingly in ether.

By contact for some days with emuslin, or by boiling with dilute sulphuric acid, arbutin is resolved, according to Hlasiwetz and Habermann (1875), as follows:—

C₂₅H₃₄O₁₄ + 2 OH₂ = C₆H₁₂O₆ · C₆H₄(OH)₂ · C₆H₄(OH·OCH₃)
Arbutin. Glucose. Hydrokinone. Methyl-hydrokinone.

Yet possibly arbutin is a mixture of the glucoside compounds of both hydrokinone and methyl-hydrokinone.

[1466] Murray, _Apparatus Medicaminum_, ii. (1794) 64-81.

[1467] Microscopic structure of the leaves, see Pocklington, _Pharm. Journ._ v. (1874) 301.

By heating arbutin with peroxide of manganese and dilute sulphuric acid, on the other hand, _Kinone_, C₆H₄O₂, and formic acid are produced. If a concentrated decoction of the leaves is allowed to stand for some months, a decomposition of the arbutin takes place, and a certain quantity of hydrokinone can be isolated by shaking the liquid with ether.

Arbutin is apparently widely distributed among the plants belonging to the order Ericaceæ. Maisch in 1874 showed it to occur in _Arctostaphylos glauca_ Swindley, _Gaultheria procumbens_ L. (Wintergreen) and several other allied American plants. Kennedy (1875) isolated arbutin from _Kalmia latifolia_ L. (Spoonwood), where it occurs in smaller quantity than in bearberry leaves.

Kinic acid (see p. 363) is probably absent in all these plants containing arbutin.

Uloth (1859) had already noticed pyrocatechin (p. 244) and hydrokinone among the products of the distillation of an aqueous extract of bearberry leaves. Arbutin itself also yields hydrokinone by means of dry distillation. Hydrokinone forms colourless crystals, melting at 169° C.

In the mother-liquor from which the arbutin has crystallized, there remains a small quantity of the very bitter substance called _Ericolin_, occurring in greater abundance in Calluna, Ledum, Rhododendron, and other _Ericaceæ_. _Ericolin_ is an amorphous yellowish mass, softening at 100° C. and resolved, when heated with dilute sulphuric acid, into sugar and _Ericinol_, a colourless, quickly resinifying oil of a peculiar, not disagreeable odour; its composition[1468] agrees with the formula C₁₀H₁₆O. The same, or C₂₀H₃₂O₂, is to be assigned to _Ursone_, which H. Trommsdorff, in 1854, obtained from bearberry leaves by exhausting them with ether (in which however it is but slightly soluble). Ursone is a colourless and tasteless crystallizable substance. It melts at 200° C., and sublimes apparently unchanged. Tonner (1866) met with it in the leaves of an Australian _Epacris_, a plant of the same order as the bearberry.

[1468] Gmelin, _Chemistry_, xvi. (1864). 28.

Lastly, tannic acid is present in the leaves under notice; their aqueous infusion is nearly colourless, but assumes a violet hue on addition of ferrous sulphate. After a short time a reddish precipitate is produced, which quickly turns blue. By using ferric chloride, a bluish black precipitate immediately separates.

=Adulteration=—The leaves of _Vaccinium Vitis-idæa_ L., called _Red Whortleberry_ or _Cowberry_, have been confounded with those of bearberry, which in form they much resemble. But they are easily distinguished by being somewhat crenate towards the apex, dotted and reticulate on the under surface and more revolate at the margin.

=Uses=—An astringent tonic used chiefly in affections of the bladder.

EBENACEÆ.

FRUCTUS DIOSPYRI.

_Indian Persimmon._

=Botanical Origin=—_Diospyros Embryopteris_ Pers. (_Embryopteris glutinifera_ Roxb.), a middle-sized or large evergreen tree, native of the western coast of India, Ceylon, Bengal, Burma, Siam, and also Java.[1469]

=History=—The tree, which is mentioned in the earliest epic poems of the Sanskrit literature under the name of _tinduka_,[1470] was also known about the year 1680 to Rheede, and was figured in his _Hortus Malabaricus_.[1471] The circumstance that the unripe fruit abounds in an astringent viscid juice which is used by the natives of India for daubing the bottoms of boats, was communicated by Sir William Jones to Roxburgh in 1791. The introduction of the fruit into medicine, which is due to O’Shaughnessy,[1472] has been followed by its admission to the _Pharmacopœia of India_, 1868.

=Description=—The fruit is usually solitary, subsessile or pedunculate, globular or ovoid, 1½ to 2 inches long, and as much as 1½ inch in diameter, surrounded at the base by a large and deeply 4-lobed calyx. It is of a yellowish colour, covered with a rusty tomentum; internally it is pulpy, 6-to 10-celled, with thin flat solitary seeds. The fruit is used only in the unripe and fresh state; the pulp is then excessively astringent. At maturity, in the month of April near Bombay, the fruit becomes eatable, but is very little appreciated.

=Chemical Composition=—No analysis has been made of this fruit, but there can be no doubt that in common with that of other species of _Diospyros_, it is, when immature, rich in tannic acid. Charropin (1873),[1473] who has examined the fruit of the American _D. virginiana_ L., found it to contain a tannic acid which he considered identical with that of nutgalls, besides an abundance of pectin, glucose, and a yellow colouring matter insoluble in water but dissolving freely in ether.

=Uses=—The inspissated juice has been recommended as an astringent in diarrhœa and chronic dysentery.

[1469] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen, _Med. Plants_, part 18 (1877).

[1470] As we learn from Dr. Rice.—Prof. Dymock (1876) gives _Timbooree_ as the Bombay name.

[1471] Tom. iii. tab. 41.

[1472] _Bengal Dispensatory_, Calcutta, 1842. 428.

[1473] _Etude sur le Plaqueminier_ (_Diospyros_), thèse, Paris, 1873. 28-30.

STYRACEÆ.

RESINA BENZOË.

_Benzoïnum_; _Benzoin_, _Gum Benjamin_; F. _Benjoin_; G. _Benzoëharz_.[1474]

=Botanical Origin=—_Styrax Benzoin_ Dryander, a tree of moderate height, with stem as thick as a man’s body and beautiful crown of foliage, indigenous to Sumatra and Java, in the first of which islands benzoin is produced.

[1474] _Benzoin_ in Malay and Javanese is termed _Kamâñan_, _Kamiñan_, and _Kamayan_, abbreviated to _mâñan_ and _miñan_ (Crawfurd); it is called in Siamese _kom-yan_ or _kan-yan_; in Chinese _ngán-si-hiáng_.

The name _Benzoin_ is also applied to the beautiful prisms C₁₄H₁₂O₂ obtained by treating Bitter Almond Oil with an alcoholic solution of potash.

The tree yielding the superior benzoin of Siam, though commonly referred to this species, has never been examined botanically, and is actually unknown. The French expedition for the exploration of the Mekong and Cochin China (1866-68), reported the drug to be produced in the cassia-yielding forests on the eastern bank of the river in question in about N. lat. 19°. Whether any benzoin is obtained from _S. Finlaysoniana_ Wall, as conjectured by Royle, we know not.

=History=—There is no evidence that the Greeks and Romans,[1475] or even the earlier Arabian physicians, had any acquaintance with benzoin; nor is the drug to be recognized among the commodities which were conveyed to China by the Arab and Persian traders between the 10th and 13th centuries, though the camphor of Sumatra is expressly named.

The first mention of benzoin known to us (disregarding the word kalanusari, which in the St. Petersburg Dictionary is given as the old Sanskrit name of benzoin) occurs in the travels of Ibn Batuta,[1476] who having visited Sumatra during his journey through the East, A.D. 1325-49, notes that the island produces _Java Frankincense_ and camphor. The word _Java_ was at that period a designation of Sumatra, or was even used by the Arabs to signify the islands and productions of the Archipelago generally.[1477] Hence came the Arabic name _Lubán Jáwí_, i.e. _Java Frankincense_, corrupted into _Banjawi_, _Benjui_, _Benzui_, _Benzoë_ and _Benzoïn_, and into the still more vulgar English _Benjamin_.

We have no further information about the drug until the latter half of the following century, when we find a record that in 1461 the sultan of Egypt, Melech Elmaydi, sent to Pasquale Malipiero, doge of Venice, a present of 30 _rotoli_ of _Benzoi_, 20 _rotoli_ of Aloes Wood, two pairs of Carpets, a small flask of balsam (of Mecca), 15 little boxes of Theriaka, 42 loaves of Sugar, 5 boxes of Sugar Candy, a horn of Civet, and 20 pieces of Porcelain.[1478] Agostino Barberigo, another doge of Venice, was presented in a similar manner in 1490 by the sultan of Egypt with 35 _rotoli_ of Aloes Wood, the same quantity of _Benzui_ and 100 loaves of Sugar.[1479]

Among the precious spices sent from Egypt in 1476 to Caterina Cornaro, queen of Cyprus, were 10 lb. of Aloes Wood and 15 lb. of _Benzui_.[1480] These notices indicate the high value set upon the drug when first brought to Europe.

The occurrence of benzoin in Siam is noticed in the journal of the voyage of Vasco da Gama,[1481] where, in enumerating the kingdoms of India, it is stated that Xarnaux (Siam[1482]) yields much benzoin worth 3 _cruzados_, and aloes worth 25 _cruzados_ per _farazola_. According to the same record, the price of benzoin (_beijoim_) in Alexandria was 1 _cruzado_ per _arratel_, half the value of aloes wood.

[1475] Crawfurd suggests that the _Malabathrum_ of the ancients is possibly _benzoin_.—_Dict. of Indian Islands_, 1856. 50.

[1476] _Voyages d’Ibn Batoutah_, traduit par Defrémery et Sanguinetti, Paris, 1853-59. iv. 228. 240.

[1477] Yule, _Book of Ser Marco Polo_, ii. (1871) 228.

[1478] Muratori, _Rerum Italicarum Scriptores_, xxii. (1733) 1170.—100 _rotoli_ = 175 lb. avoirdupois.

[1479] L. de Mas Latrie, _Hist. de l’île de Chypre_, etc. iii. (1861) 483.

[1480] _Ibid._ iii. 406.

[1481] _Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama em 1497_, par Herculano e o Barão Castello de Paiva, segunda edição, Lisboa, 1861. 109.

The Roteiro is also found in Flückiger, _Documente zur Geschichte der Pharmacie_, Halle, 1876. 13.

[1482] Yule, _op. cit._ ii. 222.

The Portuguese traveller Barbosa[1483] visited in 1511 Calicut on the Malabar Coast, and found _Benzui_ to be one of the more valuable items of export, one _farazola_ (22 lb. 6 oz.) costing 65 to 70 _fanoes_; camphor fetched nearly the same price, and mace only 25 to 30 _fanoes_. From other sources we gather that benzoin was an article of Venetian trade in the beginning of the 16th century.

Garcia de Orta, writing at Goa (1563), was the first to give a lucid and intelligent account of benzoin, detailing the method of collection, and distinguishing the drug of Siam and Martaban from that produced in Java and Sumatra.

It began then to be regularly imported into Europe,[1484] being frequently called _Asa dulcis_. The chemists of that time submitted it, like many other substances, to dry distillation. Benzoic acid occasionally separating from the oily products (“_oleum Benzoës_”) was noticed already by Nostredame,[1485] Rosello,[1486] Liebaut,[1487] Blaise de Vigenère,[1488] and others. It was a common pharmaceutical preparation, under the name of _Flores Benzoës_, since the 17th century.[1489]

In the early part of the 17th century, there was direct commercial intercourse between England and both Siam and Sumatra, an English factory existing at Ayuthia (Siam) until 1623; and benzoin was doubtless one of the commodities imported. The import duties levied upon it in England in 1635 amounted to 10_s._ per lb.[1490]

=Production=—Benzoin is collected in Northern and Eastern Sumatra, especially in the Batta country, lying southward of the state of Achin.[1491] The tree grows in plenty also in the highlands of Palembang in the south and its resin is collected. It is chiefly on the coast regions that considerable plantations are found. Teysmann saw the cultivation in the tracts of the river Batang Leko, the trees being planted about 15 feet apart. The benzoin from the interior is mostly from wild trees, which occur at the foot of the mountains at an elevation of 300 to 1000 feet.

The trees, which are of quick growth, are raised from seeds grown on the [edges of?] rice-fields; they require no particular attention beyond being kept clear of other plants, until about 6 or 7 years old, when they have trunks 6 to 8 inches in diameter, and are capable of yielding the resin. Incisions are then made in their stems, from which there exudes a thick, whitish, resinous juice, which soon hardens by exposure to the air, and is carefully scraped off with a knife.

[1483] Flückiger, _l.c._, page 14.

[1484] Cardanus, _Les livres de la subtilité_, Paris, 1556 (first edition, 1550), page 160 _b._ states: “belzoi est de vil prix pour l’abondance.”

[1485] _Excellent et moult utile opuscule à touts necessaire qui desirent avoir cognoissance de plusieurs exquises receptes_, 1556.

[1486] Alexii Pedemontani (or Hieron. Rosello), _De secretis libri vi._, Basil, 1560, page 107.

[1487] _Quatre livres de secrets de medecine et de la philosophie chimique_, Paris, 1579, page 146.

[1488] _Traicté du feu et du sel_, Paris, 1622, page 99.—Vigenère speaks distinctly of “filamens ou aiguilles,” i.e. crystals.—He died in 1596.

[1489] Flückiger, _Pharm. Journ._ vi. (1876) 1022.

[1490] _The Rates of Marchandizes_, London, 1635.

[1491] Miquel, _Prodromus Floræ Sumatranæ_, 1860. 72; Marsden, _Hist. of Sumatra_, London, 1783. 123.—The latter author resided at Bencoolen, as an official of the English Government.

The statement of Crawfurd, _l.c._, that benzoin is collected in Borneo “_on the northern coast in the territory of Brunai_” is to us inexplicable. Mr. St. John, British Consul in Borneo, in an official report on the trade of Brunai, dated from that place 29 January 1858, enumerates the various productions of the district, but does not name benzoin.

The trees continue to yield at the rate of about three pounds per annum for 10 or 12 years, after which period they are cut down. The resin which exudes during the first three years is said to be fuller of white tears, and therefore of finer quality, than that which issues subsequently, and is termed by the Malays _Head Benzoin_. That which flows during the next 7 or 8 years, is browner in colour and less valuable, and is known as _Belly Benzoin_; while a third sort, called _Foot_, is obtained by splitting the tree and scraping the wood; this last is mixed with much bark and refuse.[1492]

Benzoin is brought for sale to the ports of Sumatra in large cakes called _Tampangs_, wrapped in matting. These have to be broken, and softened either by the heat of the sun or by that of boiling water, and then packed into square cases which the resin is made to fill.

The only account of the collection of _Siam Benzoin_ is that given by Sir R. H. Schomburgk, for some years British Consul at Bangkok.[1493] He represents that the bark is gashed all over, and that the resin which exudes, collects and hardens between it and the wood, the former of which is then stripped off. This account is confirmed by the aspect of some of the Siam benzoin of commerce as well as by that of pieces of bark in our possession; but it is also evident that _all_ the Siam drug is not thus obtained. Schomburgk adds, that the resin is much injured and broken during its conveyance in small baskets on bullocks’ backs to the navigable parts of the Menam, whence it is brought down to Bangkok.[1494]

Whether benzoin owes its original fluidity to a volatile oil holding the resin in solution, and its solidification to the volatilization of this oil, or whether the resin itself hardens by oxidation,—what occasions the remarkable diversity of aspect between the opaque and milk-like, and the completely transparent resin, are questions to be investigated by some future observer.

=Description=—Benzoin (always termed in English commerce _Gum Benjamin_) is distinguished as of two kinds, _Siam_ and _Sumatra_. Each sort occurs in various degrees of purity, and under considerable differences of appearance.

1. _Siam Benzoin_—The most esteemed sort is that which consists entirely of flattened tears or drops, an inch or two long, of an opaque, milk-like, white resin, loosely agglutinated into a mass. More frequently the mass is quite compact, consisting of a certain proportion of white tears of the size of an almond downwards, imbedded in a deep, rich amber-brown, translucent resin. Occasionally the translucent resin preponderates, and the white tears are almost wanting. In some packages, the tears of white resin are very small, and the whole mass has the aspect of a reddish-brown granite. There is always a certain admixture of bits of wood, bark, and other accidental impurities.

[1492] The terms _Head_, _Belly_ and _Foot_, equivalent to our words _superior_, _medium_ and _inferior_, are used in the East to distinguish the qualities of many other commodities, as Borneo Camphor, Esculent Birds’-nests, Cardamoms, Galbanum, &c.

[1493] This account must have been derived from others, for Sir R. H. Schomburgk never visited the region producing benzoin.

[1494] _Pharm. Journ._ iii. (1862) 126.

The white tears when broken, display a stratified structure with layers of greater or less translucency. By keeping, the white milky resin becomes brown and transparent on the surface.

Siam benzoin is very brittle, the opaque tears showing a slightly waxy, the transparent a glassy fracture. It easily softens in the mouth and may be kneaded with the teeth like mastich. It has a delicate balsamic, vanilla-like, fragrance, but very little taste. When heated it evolves a more powerful fragrance, together with the irritating fumes of benzoic acid; its fusing point is 75° C. The presence of benzoic acid may be shown by the microscopical examination of splinters of the resin under oil of turpentine.

Siam benzoin is imported in cubic blocks, which takes their form from the wooden cases in which they are packed while the resin is still soft.

2. _Sumatra Benzoin_—Prior to the renewal of direct commercial intercourse with Siam in 1853, this was the sort of benzoin most commonly found in commerce.

It is imported in cubic blocks exactly like the preceding, from which it differs in its generally greyer tint. The mass however, when the drug is of good quality, contains numerous opaque tears, set in a translucent, greyish-brown resin, mixed with bits of wood and bark. When less good, the white tears are wanting, and the proportion of impurities is greater. We have even seen samples consisting almost wholly of bark. In odour, Sumatra benzoin is both weaker and less agreeable than the Siam drug, and generally falls short of it in purity[1495] and handsome appearance, and hence commands a much lower price. The greyish-brown portion melts at 95°, the tears at 85° C.

A variety of Sumatra benzoin is distinguished by the London drug-brokers as _Penang Benjamin_ or _Storax-smelling Benjamin_. We have seen it of very fine quality, full of white tears (some of them two inches long), the intervening resin being greyish.[1496] The odour is very agreeable, and perceptibly different from that of Siam benzoin, or the usual Sumatra sort. Whether this drug is produced in Sumatra and by _Styrax Benzoin_ we know not; but it is worthy of note that _S. subdenticulata_ Miq., occurring in Western Sumatra, has the same native name (_Kajoe Kĕminjan_) as _S. Benzoin_, and that Miquel remarks of it—“_An etiam benzoiferum?_”[1497]

=Chemical Composition=—Benzoin consists mainly of amorphous resins perfectly soluble in alcohol and in potash, having slightly acid properties, and differing in their behaviour to solvents. If two parts of the drug are boiled with one part of caustic lime and 20 parts of water, benzoin acid is removed. From the residue the excess of lime is dissolved by hydrochloric acid, and the remaining resins washed and dried. About one-third of them will be found readily soluble in ether, the prevailing portion dissolves in alcohol, and a small amount remains undissolved.

[1495] In the _Public Ledger_, May 2, 1874, the prices are quoted thus:—Siam Gum Benjamin, 1st and 2nd qualities, £10 to £28 per cwt.; Sumatra, 1st and 2nd, £7 10_s._ to £12.

[1496] There were 8 cases of this drug offered at Public Sale, 13 April 1871.

[1497] _Prod. Floræ Sumatranæ_, 1860. 474.

By distilling the resin of benzoin with ten times its weight of zinc dust, Ciamician (1878) chiefly obtained toluol, C₆H₅(CH₃).

Subjected to dry distillation, benzoin affords as chief product _Benzoic Acid_, C₇H₆O₂, together with empyreumatic products, among which Berthelot has proved the presence (in Siam benzoin) of _Styrol_ (p. 274). The latter has been obtained in 1874 by Theegarten from Sumatra benzoë by distilling it with water. When the resin is fused with potash, it is partly decomposed and then, according to Hlasiwetz and Barth (1866), yields among other products, protocatechuic acid (more than 5 per cent.), C₆H₃(OH)₂COOH, para-oxybenzoic acid, C₆H₄(OH)COOH, and pyrocatechin, C₆H₄(OH)₂.

_Benzoic acid_ exists ready-formed in the drug to the extent of 14 to 18 per cent.[1498] Although the acid dissolves in 12 parts of boiling water, the resin in which it is imbedded precludes its complete extraction by this means. It is however easily accomplished by the aid of an alkali, most advantageously by milk of lime, which does not combine with the amorphous resins.

Benzoin is not manifestly acted on by bisulphide of carbon, but if kept in contact with it for a month or two, very large colourless crystals of benzoic acid make their appearance. Brought into a warm room, the crystals quickly dissolve, but are easily reproduced by exposure to cold.

Most pharmacopœias require not the inodorous acid obtained by a wet process, but that afforded by sublimation, which contains a small amount of fragrant empyreumatic products. The resin, when repeatedly subjected to sublimation, affords as much as 14 per cent. of benzoic acid. It has long been known that the opaque white tears of benzoin are less rich in benzoic acid than the transparent brown resin in which they lie. From the latter, S. W. Brown (1833) extracted 13 per cent. of impure acid, but from the former scarcely 8½ per cent. We are by no means sure that such difference is constant.

Bitter almond oil, which by oxidation yields benzoic acid, is wanting in benzoin. Very little volatile oil is in fact to be got; half a pound of the best Penang benzoin yielded us by distillation with water only a few drops of an extremely fragrant oil (_styrol?_).

Ferric chloride imparts to an alcoholic solution of benzoin a dark brownish green, which is not acquired under the same circumstances by the aqueous decoction of the powdered resin. Benzoin dissolves in cold oil of vitriol, forming a solution of splendid carmine hue, from which water separates crystals of benzoic acid.

Kolbe and Lautemann in 1860 discovered in Siam and Penang benzoin together with benzoic acid, an acid of different constitution, which in 1861 they recognized as _Cinnamic Acid_, C₉H₉O₂. Aschoff (1861) found in a sample of Sumatra benzoin, cinnamic acid only, of which he got 11 per cent.; and in amygdaloid Siam and Penang benzoin only benzoic acid. In some samples of the latter, one of us (F.) has likewise met with cinnamic acid. On triturating this sort with peroxide of lead and boiling the mixture with water, the odour of bitter almond oil, due to the oxidation of cinnamic acid, is evolved.

[1498] Löwe (1870) and Rump (1878) attempted to prove that the acid is partly present in the form of a compound, but they have not shown with which substance it is combined in the drug.

The simultaneous occurrence of benzoic and cinnamic acids, or the absence of one or other of them in benzoin, is due to circumstances at present unexplained. Rump is of the opinion that the last named acid exclusively is present in the Penang (or Sumatra) benzoin and that no variety of the drug contains both those acids.

Rump (1878) treated Siam benzoic with caustic lime (see p. 407), precipitated the benzoic acid with hydrochloric acid, and agitated the liquid with ether. The latter on evaporating afforded a mixture of benzoic acid and _Vanillin_ (see article Vanilla).

=Commerce=—The statistics of Singapore,[1499] the great emporium of the commerce of the Indian Archipelago, show the imports of Gum Benjamin in 1871 as 7442 cwt., of which quantity 6185 cwt. had been shipped from Sumatra and 405 cwt. from Siam. In 1877 only 1871 peculs (2227 cwts.) were exported from Singapore. Penang, which is also a mart for this drug was stated in 1871 to have received from Sumatra for trans-shipment, 4959 cwt. of Gum Benjamin.

Padang in Sumatra exported in 1870, 4303 peculs (5122 cwt.); and in 1871, 4064 peculs (4838 cwt.) of benzoin.[1500]

The imports of Gum Benjamin into Bombay in the year 1871-72 were no less than 5975 cwt., and the exports 1043 cwt.[1501]

=Uses=—Benzoin appears to be nearly devoid of medicinal properties, and is but little employed. It is chiefly imported for use as incense in the service of the Greek Church.

OLEACEÆ.

MANNA.

_Manna_; F. _Manne_; G. _Manna_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Fraxinus Ornus_ L. (_Ornus europæa_ Pers.), the Manna-ash, is a small tree found in Italy, whence it extends northwards as far as the Canton of Tessin in Switzerland and the Southern Tyrol. It also occurs in Hungary (Buda) and the eastern coasts of the Adriatic, in Greece, Turkey (Constantinople), in Asia Minor about Smyrna and at Adalia on the south coast. It grows in the islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, and is found in Spain at Moxente in Valencia.[1502] As an ornamental tree it has been introduced into Central Europe, where it is often seen of greater dimensions, sometimes acquiring a height of about 30 feet. It blossoms in early summer, producing numerous feathery panicles of dull white flowers which give it a pleasing appearance. The foliage exhibits great variation in shape of leaflets, even where the tree is uncultivated; and the fruits also are very diverse in form.

In some districts of Sicily, a little manna is obtained from the Common Ash, _F. excelsior_ L.

[1499] _Blue Book_ for the Colony of the Straits Settlements, Singapore, 1872.

[1500] _Consular Reports_, August 1873. 953.

[1501] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the Presidency of Bombay for 1871-72_, pt. ii. 26. 79.

[1502] _Fraxinus Bungeana_ DC., a tree of Northern China, appears to be hardly distinct from _F. Ornus_.

=History=—The name _Manna_, though originally applied to the aliment miraculously provided for the sustenance of the ancient Israelites during their journey to the Holy Land, has been used to designate other substances of distinct nature and origin. Of these, the best known and most important is the saccharine exudation of _Fraxinus Ornus_ L., which constitutes the _Manna_ of European medicine.

It appears evident[1503] that previous to the 15th century, the manna in Europe was imported from the East and was not that of the ash. Raffaele Maffei, called also Volaterranus, a writer who flourished in the second half of the 15th century, states that manna began to be gathered in Calabria in his time, but that it was inferior to the oriental.[1504] At this period the manna collected was that which exuded spontaneously from the leaves of the tree, and was termed _Manna di foglia_ or _Manna di fronda_: that which flowed from the stem bore the name of _Manna di corpo_ and was less esteemed. All such manna was very dear.

About the middle of the 16th century, the plan of making incisions in the trunk and branches was resorted to, and although it was strenuously opposed even by legislative enactment, the more copious supplies which it enabled the collectors to obtain led it to being generally adopted. The Ricettario Fiorentino of the year 1573[1505] states that the manna “fatta con arte,” _i.e._ obtained by incisions, came from Cosenza in Calabria and differed not little from Syrian “manna mastichina.”[1506]

_Manna di foglia_ became in fact utterly unknown, so that Cirillo of Naples, writing in 1770, expresses doubt whether it ever had any existence.[1507]

With regard to the history of manna-production in Sicily, there is this curious fact, that near Cefalù there exists an eminence in the Madonia range, called _Gebelman_ or _Gibelmanna_, which in Arabic signifies _manna-mountain_. This name is not of modern origin, but is found in a diploma of the year 1082, concerning the foundation of the bishopric of Messina; and it has been held to indicate that manna was there collected during the Saracenic occupation of Sicily, A.D. 827 to 1070. We have not been successful in finding any evidence whether this supposition is well founded. On the other hand, it is remarkable that no writer, so far as we know, mentions manna as a production of Sicily, before Paolo Boccone of Palermo, who, after naming many localities for the drug in continental Italy, states that it is also obtained in Sicily.[1508]

Manna was also produced until recently in the Tuscan Maremma, but neither from that locality, nor from the States of the Church, where it was collected in the time of Boccone, is any supply now brought into commerce, though the name of Tolfa, a town near Civita Vecchia, is still used to designate an inferior sort of the drug.

The collection of manna in Calabria, which was imported up to the end of last century, has now almost entirely ceased.[1509]

[1503] Hanbury, _Historical Notes on Manna_, _Pharm. Journ._ xi. (1870) 326; or _Science Papers_, 355.

[1504] _Commentarii Urbani_, Paris, 1515. lib. 38. f. 413.

[1505] P. 46; we have not seen the edition of 1498.

[1506] Mastichina alludes probably to the granular form of that manna—perhaps it was that of Alhagi, which we shall mention further on, p. 414.

[1507] _Phil. Trans._ lx. (1771) 233.

[1508] _Museo di Fisica_, Venet. 1697. Obs. xiv.-xv.

[1509] Hanbury in _Giornale Botanico Italiano_, Ottobre 1872. 267; _Pharm. Journ._ Nov. 30. 1872. 421; _Science Papers_, 365.