from which these substances are respectively procured. The processes themselves are also somewhat
different among different nations. We shall content ourselves in this treatise with pointing out those species
which have been generally considered as most proper for the several purposes, and, in regard to the processes,
confine ourselves to those which appear best suited to their respective objects.
Medicinal Properties o f Terebinthinate Substances in general.
Terebinthinate substances, when taken internally, seem to warm the viscera, raise the pulse, and impart
additional excitement to the whole vascular system; applied externally, they increase the tone of the part,
counteract indolence of action, and deterge, as it were, dl-conditioned ulcers. Internal ulcerations indeed,
especially in the urinary passages, as well as laxities of the seminal and uterine vessels, are supposed to be
diminished by the exhibition of preparations of this nature. They certainly seem to act in a peculiar manner
on the urinary organs, impregnating the water with a violet smell, even when applied externally.11 Most of
them produce a laxative effect on the bowels, when given in a certain dose. There also appears to be a
sort of styptic property in some preparations of turpentine, on which account recourse is frequently had to
these in such cases of obstinate hemorrhage as are not attended by strong arterial action.
Pulmonary complaints, as obstinate coughs and asthmatic affections, have been said to give way to medicines
of this class; yet, in modem practice, recourse is rarely had to them in such cases, and their exhibition
is even considered as hazardous.
1 lie ancients were accustomed to medicate some of their wines with resinous substances, the astringent
flavour of which was agreeable also to their palates/ These wines were supposed to assist digestion, restrain
ulcerous and other morbid discharges, provoke urine, and strengthen the bowels; but Dioscorides informs
us, that they were known to produce vertigo, pain of the head, and many mischiefs not incident to the same
quantity of vinous liquor free from such admixtures.
The particular preparations of turpentine most employed in the treatment of the several diseases alluded
to w ill be noticed under the correspondent heads, which we have arranged in the botanical order of the
species, and of which, therefore, the first is
S C O T C H F IR .
l . L IQ U ID RESIN.
(Resina liquida pinea.J
Terebinthina vulgaris. Dale's Pharm. (Ed. 3.) p. 278. Linn. Mat. Med. p. 153. Pharm. Land.
Common Turpentine.
1 h e Common Turpentine is more coarse and dense than any other sort, and lias an opake light brown
colour. Its consistence may be compared to that of honey. The taste is very acrid, hot, and disagreeable,
and the smell much less pleasant than either the Venice or the Strasburg turpentine. It is this kind, which
(as its name implies) is most commonly used on all occasions when a terebinthinate juice is wanted, either in
medicine or in the arts, and a greater variety of preparations owe their origin to it than to the product of
any other species of Pinus.
I lie aitificial extraction of the resinous juice of the Pine seems to have been practised by the ancients in
a mannei very similar to that which obtains at present. Theophrastus d gives a particular account of the
b Kaauw de Persp. n. 430.
See Dioscorides, lib. 5. c. 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, where lie describes the 0.w Phtivit« , K,Sfivo:, IW it« , &c.
d Lib. 9. cap. 2.
I r i , . . ’ i f " nn. yc<u ior commencing the
r oocss, ami of the severa vanat.ons in the quality of the juice; and, though commentators have not been
p , ° refer a" the/ reCS Cril,ed by this Venerable auth° r l° Aeir proper places in the Linnean Species
1 lantarum, it ,s sufficiently evident that three or four kinds of turpentine were in use among the ancient
p ysicians, which corresponded, in their properties, with those found in the shops of the moderns' The
mode of extracting the liquid resin of the Pine, however, is not mentioned by Theophrastus, or by any
other writer of antiquity sufficiently in detail to deserve insertion here, and we shall therefore transcribe the
account given by Duhamel, (in his “ Traits des Arbres,") who is more circumstantial than any other author
and Who though not much more precise than the older naturalists in defining the particular species of trees
mos e ,g> i e tor the operations, seems to have acquired very accurate information respecting the operations
themselves, and several interesting circumstances connected with them.
It ,s well known that all Pines, even of the same species, do not yield an equal quantity of resin. Some
pioduce three pints m one summer, and others not half a gallon the whole time they last. This difference
does not seem to depend on the size or on the age of the tree, or, altogether, on the nature of the soil
because it is observable even m the same forest; but, in general, it has been remarked, that trees with the
nettest bark and which have been most exposed to the heat of the sun, yield the most. It is usual to select
sue as are of about four or five feet in circumference. At the foot of the tree a hole is made in the ground to
the depth of eight or nine inches, and which will hold nearly a quart of the juice. Owing to the looseness
ot the soil m newly made pits, a portion of the juice of course is lost by transudation, but in mixing will, the
earth, it at length forms a mass sufficiently compact to resist any further draining. Though much attention
is generally paid to cleaning the soil contiguous to the pits, sand, leaves, and fragments of bark will inevitably
collect in the latter, and render a filtering process afterwards necessary. In some countries, a hole is cut in
the substance of the tree itself near the root, in order to save the juice more free from impurities, but this
practice is attended with danger to the former. When the proper receptacles are prepared, and a little while
before the season for making incisions, the coarse back is stripped off, down to the liber, to the extent of
about six inches. This precaution is the more necessary, in order that the edge of the instruments employed
tor making the incisions may not be injured; for if any splinters or filaments should be left in the wounds,
the free course ot the juice to the pits would be impeded; besides, in taking off the outer bark, it is scarcely
possi de to prevent fragments from falling down, and mixing with the juice, if any should have been collected,
in t le pits. As the resin flows most abundantly in hot weather, the incisions are begun near the end of May,
and the extension of them continued to September. After the outer bark has been taken away, the inner
uirk and a thin slip of wood are cut off with a very sharp tool, so that there may be a wound in the tree
not more than three inches square by an inch deep; this first incision is made near the foot of the tree,
mmediately after the operation, the resinous juice begins to exude, in very transparent.drops, from the
ligneous part and from between this and the bark; the bark itself yields scarcely any. The hotter the weather
the greater ,s the production of resin, and the flowing ceases altogether at the approach of the chilliness
ot September. To facilitate the supply, the incisions are renewed once in three or four days, or oftener;
for this purpose, the wound is a little enlarged, and a very thin slip taken off each time, so that an incision
which, at the beginning of the summer, was only three or four inches in diameter, becomes, by the end of
September, a foot and a half wide, and two or three inches deep. The following year a new wound is made
just above the former, and managed in a similar manner. Thus, pines which have been cut for twelve or
fifteen years have, one above another, twelve or fifteen wounds, and these several wounds reach to the
height of as many feet, -» hence it becomes necessary to ascend steps to make the later incisions. It is not of
much consequence on what side of the tree the incisions be made. The operators are commonly guided by
the shape of the trunk, the situation of the ground, and the facility of digging pits; but there certainly
seems to be some advantage in preferring that side of the tree which is most exposed to the sun. When the
BfAr.(TTt! [XIV yap v npfxivio;. xxi yap uunoljixuia, xtxi luieJiaralv, xa, xv^oTarn -n, otr/xr, aXX' oXiyn, Stvupz Si » iXarm x
“ ” **' *** TnrUiirraT^ Six to [xzXittx ivSxSov iivz, ™ ntvxr,». (Ibid.)
. xovpmpzi yap mf ritJXiy<l(. tXiiotv St
% comparing the above description o f the juices o f terebinthiniferous trees with that given by modern writers on the Materia Medico, we
m o u i almost be led to decide, with positiveness, that the kinds enumerated by Theophrastus were no other than the Cyprian, the Strasburg,
am 1 ie Common Turpentines o f the European pharmacopceiar, at any rate, from the description o f the we cannot but conclude that
e °n ms las erret cgregiously in considering the mux* o f Theophrastus as the Picea, and the IT.tuj as the Pinus o f the Roman writers, a conclusion
con unite y a passage in Scribonius Largus, who, in speaking o f the rcsina pityina, defines it in these words
Comp. Med. c. 83.)
‘ id est ex picea arbore.” (See