or ALOE-WOOD, in pharmacy. See ALOE.

This drug is distinguished into three sorts, the calambac, the common lignum aloes, and calambour.

The calambac, or finest aloes-wood, called by authors lignum aloes praestantissimum, and by the Chinese tuk hiang, is the most resinous of all the woods we are acquainted with: it is of a light spongy texture, very porous, and its pores so filled up with a soft and fragrant resin, that the whole may be pressed and dented by the fingers like wax, or moulded about by chewing in the mouth, in the manner of mastic. This kind, laid on the fire, melts in great parts like resin, and burns away in a few moments, with a bright flame and perfumed smell. Its scent, while in the mails, is very fragrant and agreeable; and its taste acid and bitterish, but very aromatic and agreeable: it is so variable in its colour, that some have divided it into three kinds, the one variegated with black and purple; the second, with the same black, but with yellowish instead of purple; and the third, yellow alone, like the yolk of an egg: this last is the least scented of the three; the substance however, in them all, is the same in every respect, except their colour. It is brought from Cochin-China.

The lignum aloes vulgare is the second in value. This is of a more dense and compact texture, and consequently less resinous than the other; there is some of it, however, that is spongy, and has the holes filled up with the right resinous matter; and all of it, when good, has veins of the same resin in it. We meet with it in small fragments, which have been cut and split from larger; these are of a tolerably dense texture in the more solid pieces, and of a dusky brown colour, variegated with resinous black veins. It is in this state very heavy, and less fragrant than in those pieces which show a multitude of little holes, filled up with the same blackish matter that forms the veins in others. The woody part of these last pieces is somewhat darker than the other, and is not unfrequently purplish, or even blackish. The smell of the common aloes-wood is very agreeable, but not so strongly perfumed as the former. Its taste is somewhat bitter and acid, but very aromatic. This wood is also brought from Cochin-China, and sometimes from Sumatra.

The calambour, or, as some write it, calambouc is also called agallochum fylletre, and lignum aloes mexicanum. It is a light and friable wood, of a dusky and often mottled colour, between a dusky green black, and a deep brown. Its smell is fragrant and agreeable, but much less sweet than that of either of the others; and its taste bitterish, but not so much acid or aromatic as either of the two former. We meet with this very frequent, and in large logs; and these sometimes entire, sometimes only the heart of the tree, the cortical part being separated. This is brought from the island of Timor, and is the aloes-wood used by the cabinet-makers and inlayers.

The Indians use the calambac by way of incense, burning small pieces of it in the temples of their gods; and sometimes their great people burn it in their houses, in times of feasting. It is esteemed a cordial, taken inwardly; and they sometimes give it in disorders of the stomach and bowels, and to destroy worms. A very fragrant oil may be procured from it, by distillation; which is recommended in paralytic cases, from five to fifteen drops. It is at present, however, but little used; and would scarce be met with anywhere in the shops, but that it is an ingredient in some of the old compositions.