in the short space of two years, it is possible to obtain from the same tree an annual yield of balsam for many years, provided a few years of rest be occasionally allowed. Clay or earth is sometimes smeared over the bared wood.

The trees sometimes exude spontaneously, a greenish gum-resin of slightly bitter taste, but totally devoid of balsamic odour. It has been analysed by Attfield (see opposite page).

Secretion of the Balsam-No observations have yet been made as to the secretion of the balsam in the wood, or the part that is played by the operation of scorching the bark. Neither the unscorched bark nor the wood, as we have received them, possesses any aromatic odour.

The old accounts speak of a very fragrant resin, far more valuable than the ordinary balsam, obtained by incisions. We have made many inquiries for it, but without the least success. Such a resin is easily obtainable from the trunk of M. Toluifera.

Description-Balsam of Peru is a liquid having the appearance of molasses but rather less viscid. In bulk it appears black, but when examined in a thin layer, it is seen to be of a deep orange brown and perfectly transparent. It has a balsamic, rather smoky odour, which is fragrant and agreeable when the liquid is smeared on paper and warmed. It does not much affect the palate, but leaves a disagreeable burning sensation in the fauces.

The balsam has a sp. gr. of 1·15 to 1:16. It may be exposed to the air for years without undergoing alteration or depositing crystals. It is not soluble in water, but yields to it a little cinnamic and traces of benzoic acid; from 6 to 8 parts of crystallized carbonate of sodium are required to neutralize 100 parts of the balsam. It is but partially and to a small extent dissolved by dilute alcohol, benzol, ether or essential or fatty oils, not at all by petroleum-ether. The balsam mixes readily with glacial acetic acid, anhydrous acetone, absolute alcohol or chloroform. Its rotatory power is very insignificant.

Chemical Composition-The peculiar process by which balsam of Peru is obtained, causes it to contain a variety of substances not found in the more natural resin of Myroxylon Toluifera; hence the two drugs though derived from plants most closely allied, possess very different properties.

Three parts of the balsam mix readily with one part of bisulphide of carbon, yet a further addition of the latter will cause the separation of a brown flocculent resin. If the balsam be mixed with thrice its weight of bisulphide, a coherent mass of dark resin, sometimes amounting to about 38 per cent. of the balsam, is precipitated. The bisulphide of carbon forms then a perfectly transparent brown liquid. If this solution is shaken with water, the latter removes Cinnamic and Benzoic acids. To separate them, ammonia is cautiously added, yet not in excess.1 The solution of cinnamate and benzoate thus obtained and duly concentrated, yields both these acids in white crystals on addition of acetic or hydrochloric acid.

The resin separated by means of bisulphide of carbon as above stated, is a black brittle amorphous mass, having no longer the specific odour of

1 By saturating the acid aqueous liquid with ammonia, it assumes a transient bright yellow hue; an excess of ammonia trans

forms the whole mixture into an emulsion, from which the cinnameïn again separates but imperfectly.

the balsam. It is soluble in caustic alkalies, also in alcohol; the solution in the latter which may be considerably purified by charcoal, reddens litmus, and is abundantly precipitated by an alcoholic solution of neutral acetate of lead. Kachler (1869) by melting this resin with potash obtained about of its weight of proto-catechuic acid.1 By destructive distillation, it furnishes benzoic acid, styrol C8H8, and toluol C'H.

As to the solution obtained with bisulphide of carbon, it forms after the bisulphide has evaporated, a brownish aromatic liquid of about 1·1 sp. gr., termed Cinnamein. This substance may also be obtained by distillation, yet less' easily, on account of its very high boiling point, about 300° C.

Cinnameïn, C16H1402, is resolved by concentrated caustic lye into benzylic alcohol, C'H3O, and cinnamic acid, C'H O2, whence it follows that cinnameïn is Benzylic Cinnamate. This is, according to Kraut (1858, 1869, 1870) and to Kachler (1869, 1870), the chief constituent of the balsam. The former chemist obtained from it nearly 60 per cent. cinnameïn. Kachler assigns to the balsam the following composition: 46 per cent. of cinnamic acid, 32 of resin, 20 of benzylic alcohol. These latter figures however are not quite consistent: 46 parts of cinnamic acid (equivalent = 148) would answer to 73 parts of benzylic cinnamate; and 20 parts of benzylic alcohol require on the other hand only (equivalent = 108) 27.4 parts of cinnamic acid in order to form benzylic cinnamate (equivalent = 238).

Benzylic cinnamate prepared as above stated, is a thick liquid, miscible both with ether or alcohol, not concreting at 12° C., boiling at 305° C., yet under ordinary circumstances not without decomposition. By exposure to air, it slowly acquires an acid reaction; by prolonged action of potash, especially in an alcoholic solution, toluol is also formed. In this process, cinnamate of potassium finally forms a crystalline mass, while an oily mixture of benzylic alcohol and toluol, the so-called "Peruvin," constitutes the liquid part of the whole.

Grimaux (1868) has artificially prepared benzylic cinnamate by beating an alkaline cinnamate with benzylic chloride. Thus obtained, that substance forms crystals, which melt at 39° C., and boil at 225 to 235° C. They consequently differ much from cinnameïn.

Delafontaine (1868) is of the opinion, that cinnameïn contains besides. benzylic cinnamate, cinnamylic cinnamate C36H32O4, the same substance as described under the name of styracin, in the article Styrax liquida. He states that he obtained benzylic and cinnamylic alcohol when he decomposed cinnameïn by an alkali. The two alcohols however were separated only by fractional distillation.

From the preceding investigations it must be concluded, that the bark of the tree contains resin and probably benzylic cinnamate. The latter is no doubt altered by the process of collecting the balsam, which is followed on the Balsam Coast. To this are probably due the free acids in the balsam and its dark colour.

Another point of considerable interest is the fact, that the tree exudes a gum-resin, containing according to Attfield 774 per cent. of resin," which is non-aromatic and devoid of cinnamic acid, and therefore entirely distinct from balsam of Peru.

1 Many other resins as benzoin, guaiacum, dragon's blood, myrrh, are capable of affording the same acid.

2 Pharm. Journ. v. (1864) 248.

Commerce-The balsam is shipped chiefly at Acajutla. It used formerly to be packed in large earthenware jars, said to be Spanish wine-jars, which, wrapped in straw, were sewed up in raw hide. These packages have of late been superseded by metallic drums, which have the advantage of being much less liable to breakage. We have no recent statistics as to the quantity exported from Central America.

Uses Occasionally prescribed in the form of ointment as a stimulating application to old sores, sometimes internally for the relief of asthma and chronic cough. It is said to be also employed for scenting soap.

Other sorts of Balsam of Peru.

The value anciently set upon balsam for religious and medicinal uses, led to it being extracted from trees no longer employed for the purpose; and many of the products so obtained have attracted the attention of pharmacologists. Parkinson writing in 1640 observes that "there have beene divers other sorts of liquours, called Balsamum for their excellent vertues, brought out of the West Indies, every one of which for a time after their first bringing was of great account with all men and bought at great prices, but as greater store was brought, so did the prices diminish and the use decay.

In a treatise on Brazil written by a Portuguese friar about 15701600, mention is made of the "Cabueriba" (Cabure-iba), from which a much-esteemed balsam was obtained by making incisions in the stem, and absorbing the exudation with cotton wool, somewhat in the same way as Balsam of Peru is now collected in Salvador. This tree is Myrocarpus frondosus Allem., now called Cabriuva preta. The genus is closely allied to Myroxylon.

A fragrant balsamic resin is likewise collected, though in but very small quantity, from Myroxylon peruiferum Linn. f., a noble tree of New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. A fine sample of this substance, accompanied by herbarium and other specimens, was presented to one of us (H.) by Mr. J. Correa de Méllo of Campinas (Brazil); it is a resin having a general resemblance to Balsam of Tolu, but of somewhat deeper and redder tint, and greater hardness. Pressed between two slips of warmed glass, it does not exhibit any crystals.

In Salvador, the name Balsamo blanco (White Balsam) is applied to the soft resin contained in the large ducts of the legume of Myroxylon Pereira. This when pressed out, forms a golden yellow, semi-fluid, granular, crystalline mass, hardening by age, having a rather unpleasant odour suggestive of melilot. Stenhouse (1850) obtained from it the neutral resin Myroxocarpin C24H34O3, in thin colourless prisms, an inch or more in length. We have succeeded in extracting it directly from the pods. This White Balsam, which is distinctly mentioned in the letter of Palacio in 1576 (see p. 180), is a scarce and valuable article, never prepared for the market. A large jar of it was sent to Pereira in 1850.8

Another fragrant oleo-resin which has doubtless been confounded with that of a Myroxylon, is obtained in Central America from Liquidambar styraciflua L., either by incision or by boiling the bark.

1 Guibourt, Hist. des Drog. iii. (1850)

440.

2 Purchas, His Pilgrimes, iv. (1625) 1308.

a Pharm. Journ. x. (1851) 286.

SEMEN BONDUCELLE.

Semen Guilandine; Bonduc Seeds, Grey Nicker Seeds or Nuts; F. Graines de Bonduc ou du Cniquier, Pois Quéniques, Pois Guénic.

Botanical Origin-Caesalpinia Bonducella Roxb. (Guilandina Bonducella L.), a prickly, pubescent, climbing shrub of wide distribution, occurring in Tropical Asia, Africa and America, especially near the sea. The compressed, ovate, spiny legume is 2 to 3 inches long, and contains one or two, occasionally three or four, hard, grey, globular seeds.

The plant is often confounded with C. Bonduc Roxb., a nearly allied but much rarer species, distinguished by being nearly glabrous, having leaflets very unequal at the base, no stipules, erect bracts, and yellow seeds.

History The word Bunduk, occurring in the writings of the Arabian and Persian physicians, mostly signifies hazel-nut.1 One of these authors, Ibn Baytar 2 who flourished in the 13th century, further distinguished a drug called Bunduk Hindi (Indian Hazel-nut), giving a description which indicates it plainly as the seed under notice. Both Bunduk and Bunduk Hindi are enumerated in the list of drugs of Noureddeen Mohammed Abdullah Shirázy,3 physician to the Mogul emperor Shah Jehan, A.D. 1628-1661.

The pods of C. Bonducella were figured by Clusius in 1605, under the name of Lobus echinodes, and the plant both by Rheede1 and Rumphius. Piso and Marcgraf (1648) noticed it in Brazil and gave some account of it with a bad woodcut, under the designation of Inimbóy (now Inimboja), or in Portuguese Silva do Praya.

In recent times, Bonduc seeds have been employed on account of their tonic and antiperiodic properties by numerous European practitioners in the East, and have been included in the Pharmacopoeia of India, 1868.

Description-The seeds are somewhat globular or ovoid, a little compressed,to of an inch in diameter and weighing 20 to 40 grains. They are of a blueish or greenish grey tint, smooth yet marked by slightly elevated horizontal lines of a darker hue. The umbilicus is surrounded by a small, dark brown, semilunar blotch opposite the micropyle. The hard shell is from to of an inch thick, and contains a white kernel, representing from 40 to 50 per cent. of the weight of the seed. It separates easily from the shell, and consists of the two cotyledons and a stout radicle. When a seed is soaked for some hours in cold water, a very thin layer can be peeled from the surface of the testa. The kernel is bitter, but with the taste that is common to most seeds of the family Leguminosa.

Microscopic Structure-The outer layer of the testa, the epidermis above alluded to, is composed of two zones of perpendicular, closely packed cells, the outer measuring about 130 mkm., the inner

1 The word also means a little ball or a round stone.

"Sontheimer's translation i. 177.

3 Ulfaz Udwiyeh, translated by Gladwin, 1793. No. 542. 551.

Hort. Malab. ii. (1679) tab. 22, sub nom. Caretti.

100 mkm. in length and only 5 to 7 mkm. in diameter. The walls of these cylindrical cells are thickened by secondary deposits, which in transverse section show usually four or more channels running down nearly perpendicularly through the whole cell.

The spongy parenchyme which is covered by this very distinct outer layer, is made up of irregular, ovate, subglobular or somewhat elongated cells with large spaces between them, loaded with brown masses of tannic matter, assuming a blackish hue when touched with perchloride of iron. The thick walls of these cells frequently exhibit, chiefly in the inner layers, undulated outlines. The tissue of the cotyledons is composed of very large cells, swelling considerably in water and containing some mucilage (as may be ascertained when thin slices are examined in oil), small starch granules, fatty oil, and a little albuminous matter.

Chemical Composition-According to the medical reports alluded to in the Pharmacopoeia of India (1868), Bonduc seeds, and still more the root of the plant, act as a powerful antiperiodic and tonic.

The active principle has not yet been adequately examined. It may perhaps occur in larger proportion in the bark of the root, which is said to be more efficacious than the seeds in the treatment of intermittent fever.1

In order to ascertain the chemical nature of the principle of the seeds, one ounce of the kernels 2 was powdered and exhausted with slightly acidulated alcohol. The solution after the evaporation of the alcohol was made alkaline with caustic potash, which did not produce a precipitate. Ether now shaken with the liquid, completely removed the bitter matter and yielded it in the form of an amorphous white powder, devoid of alkaline properties. It is sparingly soluble in water, but readily in alcohol, forming intensely bitter solutions; an aqueous solution is not precipitated by tannic acid. It produces a yellowish or brownish solution with concentrated sulphuric acid, which acquires subsequently a violet hue. Nitric acid is without manifest influence. From these experiments, we may infer that the active principle of the Bonduc seed is a bitter substance not possessing basic properties.

Uses The powdered kernels either per se, or mixed with black pepper (Pulvis Bonducella compositus Ph. Ind.), are employed in India against intermittent fevers and as a general tonic.

The fatty oil of the seeds is sometimes extracted and used in India ; it was shown at the Madras Exhibitions of 1855 and 1857.

LIGNUM HÆMATOXYLI.

Lignum Campechianum v. Campescanum; Logwood, Peachwood; F. Bois de Campèche, Bois d'Inde; G. Campecheholz, Blauholz.

Botanical Origin-Hæmatoxylon Campechianum L., a spreading tree of moderate size, seldom exceeding 40 feet in height, native of the bay of Campeachy, Honduras and other parts of Central America. It

1 Waring, Bazaar Medicines, Travancore,

1860. 18.

2

Kindly furnished us by Dr. Waring.