a gummy-resinous concrete juice, which is brought from the East Indies or from Abyssinia. See Materia Medica Index.

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.

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, bitterness, or gall;" but the Greek translator has taken it for gall, and St Mark for myrrh. Others think that our Saviour's drink was mingled with myrrh as a stupefying drug: but suppose that the soldiers out of wanton cruelty and inhumanity, infused gall; which was the reason, say they, why, when he had tasted, he refused to drink.