ancients and this substance, after it had been some time steeped in the sea, was used medicinally as a
resolvent/ Blended with a certain quantity of oil and suet, pitch becomes an useful article to the shoemakers
for waxing their threads, and with whale fat it forms the grease with which wheels of carriages are smeared
over. In several kinds of luting also, this article possesses considerable utility, and is familiar to most
mechanics and handicraftsmen.
L A M P - B L A C K .
(Fuligo Finea.)
Noir de fumée, of the French.
Any species of Pine may be used for making lamp-black, but the general practice is to convert the impurities
left in the precipitation of tar and pitch to this purpose. The mode followed in Germany is thus
described by Axtius, who has been copied by Duhamel, and it is illustrated in the works of both these
authors by engravings.b A sort of box is made, nicely closed in every part with the exception of some holes*
in the top, which are covered, however, with a sort of linen cone. At a little distance from the box a furnace
is constructed, with a very small mouth, and the inferior part communicating with the inside of the box by
an horizontal chimney. Into this furnace are put the dregs and coarser parts left in the preparation of tar,
and in proportion to the consumption of these a supply is kept up, so as to furnish a constant draught of
smoke to the box. The smoke goes chiefly into the cone, where it deposits its grosser parts in the form of
soot, which when beaten off from the linen by sticks applied on the outside, is collected from the upper part
of the box and put into barrels.
Lamp-black is employed almost exclusively in printing and dying in the present day, but it was formerly
used as a substitute for the Fuligo Thuris, which is mentioned by Dioscorides and Celsus as a resolvent and
digestive, and formed an ingredient in some of their plasters. The first of these authors describes a process
for obtaining lamp-black literally by means of a lamp, and attributes to it astringent properties (especially in
ichorous discharges from the eyes) as well as a remarkable efficacy in promoting the growth of hair on the
eye-brows.' Galen also adverts to the same remedy in his account of the fuliginous substances prepared from
different kinds of resin/ There is a linctura Fuliginis retained in the Edinburgh Phannacopceia; this is exhibited
internally, as an antihysteric, but rarely trusted to alone, being found most efficacious when combined with
assafoetida, or other medicines of that class, to all of which it seems to be far inferior. It is directed to be
prepared from wood-soot, without any particular tree being specified as preferable for this purpose to another.
B A R K - B R E A D .
We are informed by Linnceus ' that the Laplanders eat, during a great part of the winter, and sometimes
even during’ the whole year, a preparation of the inner bark of the pine, which is called among these people
Bark-broed. This substance is made in the following manner, viz. After a selection of the tallest and least
ramose trees, (for the dwarf, branching ones contain too great a quantity of resinous juice) the dry and scaly
external bark is carefully taken off, and the soft, white, fibrous, and succulent matter collected and dried.
The time of the year chosen for this process is when the alburnum is soft and spontaneously separates from
the wood by very gentle pulling, otherwise too much labour would be required. When the natives are
about to convert it to use, it is slowly baked on the coals, and being thus rendered more porous and hard
is then ground into powder, which is kneaded with water into cakes and baked in an oven.
The Siberian ermine-hunters, when their ferment or yeast which they carry with them to make their
Quass, is spoiled by the cold, digest the inner bark of the pine with water over the fire during an hour, mix it
with their rye-meal, bury the dough in the snow, and after twelve hours find the ferment ready prepared in
thé subsiding feces/
6 Tract, de Arb. conif. c. 15. Traité des Arb. Tom. 1. p. 17- fig- 4.
• FI. Lapp. Smith, p. 284.
' Dioscorides, lib. 1. c. 79-
' Pallas. Fl. Ross. 1. p. 2. 3.
a Dioscorid. c. 82.
J Sinipl. Med. lib. 7-
THE MUGHO PINE.
L IQ U ID R E S IN .
(Resina liquida Pirn Pumilionis).
Balsamum Hungaricum, of the German Phannacopteice.
Hungarian Balsam.
T his resin spontaneously exudes from the extremities of the branches, and from other parts of the tree,
and may also be obtained, by expression, from the green cones. Its reputation as a medicine originated from
a manuscript account written by Dr. Christian ab Hortis, of Kasmark, who extolled its efficacy in the cure
of wounds, running ulcers, contusions, rheumatisms, palsies, and even of the gout.' Various other complaints
were said to be cured by it, and it afterwards received the commendations of Fischer,1 Breynius,i and
Bruckmann,* the first of whom considered it not inferior to the Balsam of Mecca. In Germany, this balsam
still retains high repute, but there can be no doubt that its medicinal virtues have been much exaggerated.
E S S E N T I A L O I L .
(Oleum essentiale Pint Pumilionis).
Oleum templinum, of the German Pharmacopoeia?.
Krumholz-oil.
T his essential oil is obtained by distillation from the resinous juice just described. The common oil of
turpentine is often substituted for it by the itinerant druggists in Germany, but the genuine sort may be
distinguished by its golden colour, agreeable odour, and acrid oiliness of taste.1
As a medicine, this oil is a popular remedy at Brunswick for the cure of intermittents, being taken, in
the dose of a few drops, just at the commencement of the cold stage. It is also used in punctures of tendons,
and by farriers as an application to foul ulcers of cattle."
THE STONE PINE.
K E R N E L S .
(Nuclei Pineoli)
riiTu/Jef. Diosc. Lib. 1. c. 74.
Pignons, of the French.
T hese kernels have a subacid, sweet taste, similar to that of almonds, and, like the latter, may lie used
for emulsions as well as for dissolving resins. They possess a nutritive and demulcent quality, but, from
their oily nature, soon become rancid and unfit to be eaten. Dioscorides speaks of their utility in coughs,
and it is probable enough that they act as expectorants in some degree; in the present day, however, they
are rarely used, except at the table."
The Siberian Stone Pine (P. Cembra) yields nuts of the same kind as these, which are, therefore, applicable
to the same purposes, but their oily contents, when exposed to the air, manifest a still stronger disposition
to acquire rancidity.
The proportion of oil in the kernels of these nuts is larger, perhaps, than in those of any other tree, one
pound of them yielding five ounces, whereas the same quantity of linseed produces only two ounces and a
* Sec Murray's App. Med. Yrol. I. p. 12. 11 Brest Samml. Vers. 2. p. 331. 1 Eph. N. C. Cent. 7. p. 5. kSpecim. duo. 1727.
1 Hermann, Mat. Med. T. 2. p. 194. m Murray, Vol. I. p. 13. " Mat. Med. p. 1 2 1 .
2 Q
* B
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