a resinous gum which exudes from the bark of the myrrh tree (Balsamodendron myrrha, nat. ord. Terebinthaceæ), found in Asia. (See the article Botany.) As a balsam, myrrh has been highly prized from the most remote times. We find the earliest mention of it in Genesis xxxvii. 25. The Egyptians used it extensively for embalming their dead, and its sweet odour is easily recognisable in the black bituminous material which is now found in large quantities in mummies. The Greeks and Romans employed it in medicine; and Pliny speaks of it as an important article of commerce in his time, and as selling at a price so high as to provoke extensive and ingenious adulteration. (See Pliny's Natural History, Bohn's edition.) Myrrh is now imported from Turkey and the East Indies. That from the former country is considered superior in quality, and is easily known from the Indian sort by its paler colour and purer fragrance. It is a true gum-resin, partially soluble in water, and partially in ether or alcohol. It is, however, more soluble in water than in alcohol. Brande gives the following analysis:—Volatile oil, 2·60; resin (soft), 22·24; resin (hard), 5·56; gum (soluble), 54·38; gum (insoluble), 9·32; salts, 1·36; impurities, 1·60; loss, 2·94. It is used in medicine, and enters largely into the composition of tooth-powders; it is also used in incense and other fumigations. Myrrh is packed in chests containing from 1½ to 2 cwt. The quantity imported into Britain in 1856 was 310 cwt. In that year the most inferior East Indian myrrh sold for L.2, 10s. per cwt., whilst the best Turkey brought L.8.