Rhaze speaks of the oil having a tendency to relieve obstructed kidneys, a circumstance not
improbable, and well deserving of being put to the test of experience, if it were only for the sake of substituting
what would be so much more agreeable to the palate than the common turpentines.
THE SIBERIAN STONE PINE.
E S S E N T I A L O IL .
(Oleum essentiale Pint Cembrce).
Balsamum Carpathicum, of the Germans.
Balsamum Libani. Murray, App. Med. Vol. I. p. 15.
Carpathian Balsam.
Tim German writers describe the Carpathian Balsam as being pellucid, very liquid, and of a whitish
colour, and as having an odour and taste like oil of Juniper. We are informed that it is extracted, by
distillation, from the shoots of Pinus Cembra, after they have been bruised, and macerated a month in water.
It was brought into notice by the authors who are mentioned above as having treated of the Ivrumholz-oil, and
they have recommended it to he rubbed on the temples, for the cure of vertigo, and to be dropped into the
ears for the cure of sumrrus and difficulty of hearing. Like all other popular medicines, this balsam has
reputation, in Germany, for performing great wonders in many complaints of very opposite characters, as
pleurisy, erysipelas, calculus, and putrid disorders; hence its »Hedged virtues are not to be loo hastily credited.
THE SILVER FIR.
L IQ U ID R E S IN .
('Resina liquida pytuina).
Terebinthina Argentoratensis, or Strasburg Turpentine. Dale's Pharm. (Ed. 1737) 277.
T h is resin is generally of a middle consistence between that of the Terebinthus and the Larix; more
transparent and less tenacious than either; in colour yellowish brown; in smell more agreeable than any
oilier turpentine, except the Cyprian; in taste the bitterest, yet least acrid.
Our own shops do not now retain any liquid resin under the name of Strasburg Turpentine, but it is sold
111 several parts of Germany, where its reputation still exists; and, according to some authors,' this sort is to
be considered as equal, if not superior, to all the other substitutes for the genuine juice of Pistachio
Terebinthus.
I lie greatest quantity is collected by the peasantry living in the vicinity of the Alps, who set out every
year towards the month of August, provided with sharp-pointed hooks and a bottle suspended to the waist,
for the purpose of puncturing the vesicles adhering to the bark of the trees. It is a curious sight, says
Duhamel/ to observe the peasants climbing to the very top of the highest firs by means of the cramp-iron
with which their shoes are armed, and which pierce the bark, their two legs and one arm grasping the trunk,
w hilst the other arm is employed with the hook. Some of them make use of a pointed bull’s horn, which
serves both as an instrument and a receptacle, and, as soon as it is filled, the resin is poured into the bottle;
the bottle is afterwards emptied into a larger or into skins, which are used for conveying the resin to the most
advantageous places of sale.
As it often happens that leaves, fragments of bark, moss, &c. fall into the horns, the resin is purified
by filtration; for which purpose a piece of bark is stripped off from a fir to make a kind of funnel; at the
* Helv. (Toni. 2. p. 317.) on the authority of Spielman. r Murray, p. 15.
'Traité des Arbres, Tom. I. p. 9.
’ Matthiol. p. 107. 334. Haller, p. 314.
11
narrow end of which are put some shoots of the same tree, and then this funnel is filled with the resinous
juice which has been collected; the juice gradually flows through, and the extraneous matter remains enveloped
in the shoots. This is said to be the only preparation used previous to sale. Very little resin is
collected by incisions in the bark of Pinus Picea, the great supply being from the vesicles, which may be
distinguished from those often formed in the pores of P. Abies by the juice of the former remaining clear and
transparent like mastic, whereas that of the latter, in thickening, becomes opake like frankincense. The
vesicles found under the bark of P. Picea are sometimes round, and sometimes oval, but it is remarkable that
in the latter case the longest diameter is always horizontal, and never perpendicular. In places where the
trees appear to be rich and the soil substantial, liquid resin is collected twice in the year, namely, in spring
as well as in autumn, but no tree produces vesicles more than once during the ascent of the sap; in poor soils
indeed vesicles are produced only in the spring.
The trees begin to yield a moderate quantity of resin as soon as they are three inches in diameter, and
continue to do so until they are increased to a foot; at this period, the wounds made in the bark form hard
and horny scales; the woody part continuing to enlarge forces the bark, which is hard and incapable of
extension, to crack open, and in proportion to the increase of size in the tree, this bark, which, when the
latter was young, did not acquire greater thickness than a quarter of an inch, at length grows to an inch and
a half, and then it yields no more vesicles.
Lewis says that the Strasburgh turpentine is procured both from the silver and from the red fir, by cutting
out, successively, narrow strips of the bark, from as high as a man can reach to within two feet of the
ground;* but we are informed by Duhamel (from whose work I he above account is principally taken) that
this practice is confined to Pinus Abies.
The uses to which the liquid resin of the silver fir is applied are, for the most part, so similar to those
mentioned under the head of Resina liquida larigna, that we shall not detain the reader with any account of
them in this place.
THE BALM OF GILEAD FIR.
L I Q U I D R E S IN .
(Resina liquida balsamea.J
Balsamum Canadense. Pharm. Lond. et Ed.
Beaum blanc de Canada, of the French.
Canada balsam.
T h i s is a transparent whitish juice, brought to this country from Canada, and apparently not very different
in its qualities from the celebrated Balm o f Gilead,' so high in esteem among the eastern nations, and so
strongly recommended in a variety of complaints. Hitherto, however, it has not been much employed in
England, yet it is thought capable of answering all the purposes for which the Copaiva balsam is employed,
and would therefore deserve a more general trial. It has an agreeable odour, and a strong, pungent taste.
THE NORWAY SPRUCE FIR.
C O N C R E T E R E S IN .
( Resina concreta abiegna.)
Thus.“ Haller. St. Helv. 2. p. 313.
Poix, of the French.
T h is substance spontaneously exudes from the pores of the tree, and soon concretes into distinct drops,
or tears, which differ from the produce of the Silver Fir in being compact, opake, and of a deeper yellow
* Mat. Med. (Ed. 4.) Vol. II. p. 417.
‘ The product of Amyris GUeadensis, and probably the Balsamum Judaicum, Syriacum, £ Mecca, Opobalsamum, See. of the older writers.
" The Thus of the ancients does not appear to have been the product of any species of Pinus, but, as we are informed by Dioscorides, (Lib. 1.
2 R