CAMPHOR, or CAMPHIRE (see Encycl.), is, in China, obtained by boiling the branches, twigs, and leaves, of the Laurus-Campbora in water, upon the surface of which it is found swimming in the form of an oil, or adhering, in a glutinous form, to a wooden rod, with which the boiling matter is constantly stirred. The glutinous mass is then mixed with clay and lime, and put into an earthen vessel, with another of the same size properly luted over it; the lower vessel being placed over a slow fire, the camphor gradually sublimes through the clay and lime, and adheres to the sides of the upper vessel,
Canabac,
Can. Is.
vessel, forming a cake of a shape corresponding to the cavity which received it. It is, however, less pure and much weaker than what is discovered in a solid state among the fibres of the trunk, as turpentine is found in different sorts of pines. In the great, but ill-peopled, island of Borneo, and also in Japan, the camphor tree is felled for the sole purpose of finding this costly drug in substance among the splinters of the trunk, in the same manner as other trees are felled in Louisiana merely for collecting the fruit they bear upon their summits. The Borneo, or Japan camphor, is pure, and so very strong, as readily to communicate much of its odour and its virtues to other inspissated oils, which thus pass for real camphor; and this adulterated drug is sold by Chinese artists at a vastly lower price than they gave themselves for the genuine substance from Borneo or Japan.
Sir George Staunton, from whom we have this account, does not inform us whether the camphor-tree of China, if felled and torn into splinters, would not produce as large quantities of the drug, and equally pure, as the trees of Borneo and Japan; but he assures us, that in China it is never so torn, being there a large and valuable timber-tree. "It is used" (says he) in the best buildings of every kind, as well as for masts of vessels, and bears too high a price to allow of any part, except the branches, being cut up for the sake of the drug."