pils are filled lo a certain height, the juice is taken out with ladles made either of wood or iron, and poured
into pails, in order to he removed to the hollow trunk of a Pine sufficient to hold three or four barrels.
The timber of Pines that have yielded resin even for fifteen or sixteen years is not the less valuable for
domestic purposes; and it is a common opinion among the makers of tar, that the roots of such trees produce
a greater quantity of that substance than those which have never undergone incisions.
° Theophrastus mentions a disease to which Pines are subject, and which seems to consist in a redundance
of resin collecting about the roots.' This disease, he says, proves fatal to the tree.
In France, distinct appellations have been given to the several states of the resinous juice of Pines, that
which condenses on the wounds towards the decline of the sap being called Galipot, in Provence, and Barms,
in Guieune; the fluid resin obtains the name of Perinne vierge ; and a thinner kind of the latter, subjected to
a sort of filtration, is called Bijon, or Terebinthine fine. The Galipot is used by the chandlers ill making
flambeaux, though the greatest quantity of this substance usually undergoes conversion, by being boiled,
into Brai-sec and Yellow resin, to be described presently.
The liquid resin of the Pine, though of inferior quality to that of the Turpentine-tree, the Larch, and
the Silver Fir, especially for internal use, is too often substituted for the others in the shops of llie druggists.
In most terebiiithinate preparations this species is the subject, and there is no reason, perhaps, why the
essential oil and other parts of it, separately taken, should not be equally good, and possessed of the same
properties as what might be extracted from the juice of different trees. Whilst mentioning the essential oil,
it may not be amiss to remark, that this seems to be the most active principle contained in turpentines, the
several preparations of these juices manifesting most efficacy according as they are most impregnated with
it, hence, in most cases, the common Oleum Terebinthina seems preferable to the crude resin; but of this oil
we shall speak more particularly hereafter. The Colleges of London and Edinburgh direct the common
turpentine lo be used chiefly in external applications, for which it was much employed by the ancients also.
Celsus mentions “ Resina liquida pinea" as entering into the composition of many of his malagmata, and the
« résina liquida” of other writers would appear to be of the same kind. The Emplastrum Lythargyn compo-
situm, and Unguentum Elemi compositum, (Ph. Lend.) both contain this resinous juice as a principal ingredient;
its digesting, cleansing, and incarnating properties, are acknowledged by medical practitioners universally.
But its usels not confined to the healing art. In common life it helps to form many materials of no small
utility, the poorer ranks of people, in many countries, making candles with it, the masons employing it in
some of their mastics, the tinners in soldering, and the tallow-chandlers (when it is amalgamated with suet
and yellow wax) for making flambeaux.
E X T R A C T OF TH E J U IC E .
(Extraction resinosum Pineum.J
The pure resinous extract of the juice of the Pine has been recommended by some foreign writers for the
cure of gonorrhea, and is supposed to possess properties similar to those of the Peruvian and Copaiva balsams.
I am not authorised, however, by any personal observation, or by accounts from any of my brethren in
England, to mention this preparation in terms of commendation.
Y E L L O W R E S IN .
Terebinthina coda. Pharm. Wurt.
Resine jaune, of the French.
The inode of preparing this substance is minutely described by the French author whose name we have
mentioned above.* He informs us, that the resinous juice is put into a large copper placed over a furnace, which
■ This he calls “ «M . (Lib. S. c. 10.) The word a ., seems to have been misunderstood by Pliny, who speaks of the » as being,
a tree itself, instead of a disease incident to it, (see Lib. 1 6 . c. tS.) which those who will take the trouble of examining the passages in Theophrastus
will plainly see could not have been the meaning of the Greek naturalist.
* Duhamel. tom. 2. p. 145.
FiflMisMlT®
last is usually constructed with a mixture of clay, sand, and straw. Great care is taken that the sides of
the furnace should adjoin close to the copper, lest the smoke of the fuel should mix with that of the resinous
juice; for, without such a precaution, the heat of the furnace would not fail to set lire to the latter, and lliere
would be a great risque of losing the whole; as an additional safeguard, there is generally a vaulted canal,
four or five feet long, affixed Lo the mouths of the furnace, and terminated by a thick mud wall live or six
feet in height. When every thing has been thus prepared, a moderate fire is kept up with very dry wood,
and the juice boiled five or six hours, the operators frequently stirring it about with a large wooden ladle to
prevent the impurities which sink to the bottom of the copper from taking fire, a circumstance likely to
occur, it is said, without such a precaution. To ascertain whether the resinous matter is sufficiently boiled,
a small quantity of it is taken out of the copper, and poured on a piece of wood; if, when it becomes cold,
it may he reduced to powder by being pressed between the fingers, they know that the process is complete,
and then conduct it out of the copper into a large trough similar to what is used for receiving the raw
juice from the pits, and placed in like manner on supports. It is necessary to filter the decoction, which i<
done by pouring it hot on some long straw neatly stretched over wooden bars which form a kind of horizontal
grating; the thickness of the straw filter is generally four or five inches. The impurities and dregs remain
on the filter, and the juice runs through it pure into the trough. Before the juice becomes cold and lixed,
it is let through a hole in the bottom of the trough into barrels, where it is suffered to harden; in this state
it assumes a brown colour and a brittle texture, and is called Brai-sec, or Rase. To convert it into yellow
resin: instead of tunning the hot juice at once into barrels, an eighth part of fresh water is mixed with it in
the trough. The water is acted upon so briskly by the Lot decoction, that the whole continues to boil an
hour or two, and the resin, from a brown colour, becomes at length of a fine yellow. It is afterwards
deposited in barrels and suffered to harden like the Brai-sec.
The yellow resin, as ordered by the London College, is the result of a different operation, but the properties
of both these substances are so extremely alike, that they may be spoken of under the same head;
we shall therefore reserve our account of them until we have described the mode of preparing the
E S S E N T I A L O IL .
(Oleum essentiale Pineum.J
O/enm Terebinthince. Pharm. Loud. & Ed.
Spiritus Terebinthina?. Pharm. Wurt. &c.
Espi'it de Rase, of the French.
Essential oil of Turpentine.
T h e process for obtaining this oil, as directed in the London Pharmacopeia, consists in distilling Im pounds
of the resinous juice with four pints of water, in a copper alembic. If one pound of the oil be
redistilled with four pints of water, the result is called rectified oil of Turpentine, (Oleum Terebinthina; rectification,
of the London and Edinburgh colleges.) The process of rectification is not unattended with danger,
for, unless the luting be very close, some of the vapour is apt to escape; and, if the latter should take fire,
the vessels will unavoidably burst. In some dispensatories, this rectified oil is denominated 1ethereal. It
does not differ very considerably in specific gravity, smell, taste, or medical qualities from the common
essential oil.
The Oleum Terebinthince, as we have before remarked, seems to be by far the most active part of the liquid
resin of the Pine, and is, on that account, much more frequently employed in medicine than any other
preparation. Its exhibition, however, requires considerable caution, and the admonitions of Boerhaave,
Lange, &c. on this subject, cannot be too strictly attended to. The former of these authors, though its
panegyrist, speaks of its violently affecting the head, producing bloody urine, and dangerously irritating the
whole habit, when given injudiciously or in too large doses; and the observation of practitioners in general
tends to confirm this assertion. Hence, it is proper to employ a very few drops at first, and not to augment
the dose without great circumspection. The best vehicle of this powerful medicine is honey, which, with
" Edinb. Dispensatory, (1797) p. 315.
2 N