a gummy-resinous concrete juice, obtained from an oriental tree of which we have as yet no certain account. It comes over to us in globes or drops, of various colours and magnitudes. The best sort is somewhat transparent, friable, in some degree unctuous to the touch, of an uniform brownish or reddish-yellow colour, often streaked internally; with whitish semicircular or irregular veins; of a moderately strong, not disagreeable smell; and a lightly pungent, very bitter taste, accompanied with aromatic flavour, but not sufficient to prevent its being nauseous to the palate. There are sometimes found among it hard thinning pieces, of a pale yellowish colour, resembling gum-arabic, of no taste or smell; sometimes masses of balsam, darker coloured, more opaque, internally softer than the myrrh, and differing from it both in smell and taste: sometimes an unctuous gummy resin, of a moderately strong somewhat ungrateful smell, and a bitterish very durable taste, obviously different both from those of balsam and myrrh: sometimes likewise, as Cartheuer observes, hard compact dark-coloured tears, less unctuous than myrrh, of an offensive smell, and a most ungrateful bitterness, so as, when kept for some time in the month, to provoke reaching, though so resinous, that little of them is dissolved by the saliva. Great care is therefore requisite in the choice of this drug.

We have, as already observed, no certain information concerning the tree from which this substance flows; we are only told that the myrrh-tree, or plant, is a native of Abessinia in Ethiopia, and is named bedouin by the Arabs. It is affirmed by some, that the myrrh we have at present is not equal in quality to that of the ancients, and has not that exquisite smell which all authors ascribe to the latter. They aromatized their most delicious wines with it; and it was presented as a very valuable perfume to our Lord while he lay in the manger (a). But to this it may be easily answered, that there is no disputing about perfumes any more than about tastes and colours. Men are equally changeable with regard to smells, of which we have striking examples in musk and civet (b). The ancients reckoned two kinds of myrrh: the one li-

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(a) It was this gum also which was mingled with the wine given him to drink at his passion, to deaden his pains, and produce a stupor (See Mark xv. 23.) The gall mentioned on the same occasion by St Matthew is probably the same with myrrh; for any thing bitter was usually distinguished by the name of gall. The Hebrews were accustomed to give those that were executed some stupefying draught. The difficulty which arises from the seeming difference betwixt the two evangelists, by some is solved by saying, that St Matthew, writing in Syriac, made use of the word marra, which signifies "myrrh, bitterners, or gall;" but the Greek translator has taken it for gall, and St Mark for myrrh. Others will have it, that our Saviour's drink was mingled with myrrh, as a stupefying drug; but suppose that the folder, out of wanton cruelty and inhumanity, infused gall; which was the reason, say they, why, when he had tasted, he refused to drink.

(b) In the Journal de Physique, &c Suppl. tom. xiii. 1778, we find some remarks on myrrh, made by Mr Bruce while in Abyssinia, of which the following is a statement: The same remarks have been since published in the Appendix to his Travels. The ancients, and particularly Dioscorides, who speak of myrrh, seem never to have seen it; or at least that which they have seen and described is altogether unknown to modern physicians and naturalists. The Arabians, however, who form the intermediate link in the chain between the Greek physicians and those of our days, among whom this substance grew, and from whom it received its name, afford an incontrovertible proof that the myrrh with which we are acquainted is in no respect different from that of the ancients, being produced in the same countries from which the Greeks formerly procured theirs; that is, on the eastern shores of Arabia Felix; on the coasts of the Indian ocean; and on that part of Lower Abyssinia which lies to the south-east of the Red-sea, nearly between the 12th and 13th degrees of north latitude, bounded on the west by a meridian running through the island of Maffoia, and on the east by one which passes through Cape Guardafui in the straits of Babel-mandel. This region the Greeks called Troglodyria, and must be distinguished from the country of the Troglodites, a nation different in every respect, and inhabiting the forests between Abyssinia and Nubia. The Abyssinian myrrh was always more valued than that of Arabia; and this preference it still retains to the present day. That part of Abyssinia being partly overflowed with water, and partly desert and over-run by a barbarous nation from the south, the Abyssinians have very little intercourse with it except by means of some Mahometan merchants, whose desperate adventures, undertaken on chance, sometimes turn out well, but oftener prove very unfortunate. The island of Maffoia is the common medium of exportation for the Troglodite myrrh; but so little is brought from it in comparison with what is sent from Arabia to Grand Cairo, that this is certainly the only reason which can be assigned for the inferiority of our myrrh to that of the ancients, who received it from Abyssinia. Although these barbarians employ the gum, leaves, and bark of this tree in many diseases to which they are subject, as it is the most common tree in the country, they nevertheless cut it down and burn it for domestic purposes; and as they never plant new trees to replace those which they have cut down, it is probable that in a few years quid, which they called *flastic* or *flartii*; the other was solid, and went by the name of *troglodite myrrh*. The *flastic* was procured by incision, and was received in vessels very closely shut. Large pieces sometimes present externally, or contain a kind of oily juice to which likewise the moderns give the name of *Stade*.

To prevent this juice from hardening, or at least in a very small degree, it is sufficient to exclude it from the contact of the air immediately after its issuing from the tree; and by these means its aromatic nature will be much better preserved (c).

The medical effects of this aromatic bitter are to warm

the true Troglodite myrrh will be entirely lost; and the erroneous descriptions of the ancient Greeks will lead posterity, as it has done us, to form many mistaken conjectures concerning the nature of the myrrh of the ancients.

Though the Troglodite myrrh was superior to every species of Arabian myrrh, the Greeks plainly perceived that it was not all of the same quality. Pliny and Theophratus affirm, that this difference was owing to the trees, some of which were wild, and others meliorated by culture; but this is a mere conjecture; for the truth is that none of them are cultivated. The quality of the drug formerly depended, and must still depend, on the age and soundness of the tree, on the way of making the incision, and on the season of the year, and the temperature of the air when the myrrh is gathered. To have the first and most perfect kind of myrrh, the natives select a young vigorous tree, free from moss or any other plant adhering to the bark, and make a deep incision with a hatchet above the first large branches. What runs from this wound the first year, is myrrh of the first growth, and is never plentiful. This operation is performed some time after the rains have ceased; that is from April to June; and the myrrh is produced in July and August. At each return of the season, the sap continues to run in the course to which it has been accustomed; but the tropical rains, which are very violent, and which last for six months, convey so much filth and water into the incision, that by the second year the tree begins to rot at that place; so that the myrrh is of a secondary quality, and at Cairo does not bring so great a price by a third as the myrrh of the first year. That which issues from incisions near the roots and in the trunks of old trees is of the second growth and quality, and sometimes worse; but it is reckoned good myrrh in the shops of Italy wherever except Venice. It is of a red blackish colour, dirty, solid, and heavy. It loses very little of its weight by being long kept, and can scarcely be distinguished from that of Arabia Felix. The third and worst kind is that which flows from old incisions formerly made in old trees, or which not having been at first observed, has remained a whole year upon the tree. It is black, heavy, and of an earthy colour; it has little smell and bitterness, and is probably the *caulacis* of the ancients.

Myrrh newly gathered has always a strong smell of rancid oil; and when put into water, globules of an oily substance are detached from it, which rise and swim on the surface. This oiliness does not arise from the myrrh, but from being put by the natives into goatskins, which they anointed with butter to make them pliant. It is kept in these skins, and thus carried to market; so that instead of being a fault, as some suppose, it is a proof that the myrrh is newly gathered; which is the best property that myrrh of the first kind can have. Besides, this oily covering must have retained the volatile particles of the fresh myrrh, which escape in such abundance as frequently to occasion a considerable diminution in the weight.

(c) Pliny speaks of the *flartii* as a recent or liquid myrrh; and Dioscorides, chap. 67, says nearly the same thing. Mr Bruce is of opinion (but we think he is mistaken), that the ancient Greeks and Romans, who lay at so great a distance, could never have it in that state; because he was assured by the natives, that it hardened on the tree as soon as it was exposed to the air; and because, though he was near the place where it grows, he never saw it softer than it is commonly found. Dioscorides mentions likewise a species of myrrh, which, he says, is green, and has the consistence of paste. Serapio and the Arabians affirm, that *flartii* was a preparation of myrrh dissolved in water; hence Mr Bruce conjectures, that this green unknown species was likewise a composition of myrrh and some other ingredient; and by no means a kind of Abyssinian myrrh which they could never see either green or soft. The same author supposes, that *apocalpium*, or gum of Saffa and myrrh, are one and the same substance; and he alleges, that Arabic myrrh may be distinguished from myrrh of Abyssinia in the following manner: A handful of the very small pieces which are found at the bottom of the packet containing the myrrh, is thrown into a basin with a sufficient quantity of warm water to cover them. Here the myrrh remains for some time without any perceptible change, because it dissolves slowly; whereas the gum swells to five times its original size, and appears like so many white particles among the myrrh. But nothing can be inferred from this distinction. Does the Arabian myrrh dissolve, and that of Abyssinia swell?

In that case the Arabian myrrh would act like pure gum Arabic, or acacia gum, and that of Abyssinia like gum tragacanth. To us it appears, that Mr Bruce, of whose zeal and labours in other respects we entertain a high opinion, has not performed his experiments with sufficient care; or if there was no mistake in them, we must be allowed to think, that the supposed myrrhs which he employed were nothing but a mixture of Arabian gum acacia, and gum of Baffora, or Egyptian tragacanth. We are more inclined to be of this opinion, when he says that the branches, leaves, and bark of the myrrh tree were brought to him by naked savages from the country of the Troglodites; and that he found that the leaves and bark bore a great resemblance to the acacia vera. Among these leaves he observed some straight prickles, about two inches in length. He likewise mentions, that he saw a fassa tree which was a native of the myrrh country, and covered with beautiful crimson-coloured flowers. We know that the shrub which produces the gum tragacanth is prickly, and has flowers somewhat of a purple colour. warm and strengthen the viscera: it frequently occasions a mild diaphoreis, and promotes the fluid secretions in general. Hence it proves serviceable in languid cases, diseases arising from a simple inaction, those female disorders which proceed from a cold, mucous, sluggish indisposition of the humours, suppressions of the uterine discharges, cachetic disorders, and where the lungs and thorax are oppressed by viscid phlegm. Myrrh is likewise supposed in a peculiar manner to resist putrefaction in all parts of the body; and in this light stands recommended in malignant, putrid, and pestilential fevers, and in the smallpox; in which last it is said to accelerate the eruption.

The present practice does not seem to expect any peculiar virtue from myrrh; and it is now perhaps less employed than formerly. Some late writers, however, and particularly Dr Simmons, in his treatise on Consumptions, have bestowed very high encomiums on it, even in cases of tuberculous phthisis; and although it can by no means be represented as a remedy much to be depended on, yet there is reason to believe that it has been serviceable in some cases.

Rectified spirit extracts the fine aromatic flavour and bitters of this drug, and does not elevate anything of either in evaporation: the gummy substance left by this menstruum has a disagreeable taste, with scarcely any of the peculiar flavour of the myrrh: this part dissolves in water, except some impurities which remain. In distillation with water, a considerable quantity of a ponderous essential oil arises, resembling in flavour the original drug. Myrrh is the basis of an officinal tincture. It enters the pilulae ex aloe et myrrha, the pilulae e gummi, and pilulae stomachiae, and some other formulas. But for obtaining its full effects, it must be given in doses of half a dram or upwards; and it is thought to be advantageously united with a proportion of nitre, cream of tartar, or some other refrigerant salt.