a gummy, resinous, concrete juice, which is brought from the East Indies or from Abyssinia. 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. With it they aromatized their most delicious wines; and it was presented as a very valuable perfume to our Lord whilst he lay in a 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. 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 who were executed some stupefying draught. The difficulty which arises from the seeming difference between the two evangelists, some have solved by saying that St Matthew, writing in Syriac, made use of the word μαρρα, which signifies myrrh, bitterness, or gall; but that 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 a wanton cruelty and inhumanity, infused gall; which was the reason, according to them, why, when he had tasted, he refused to drink.