It was formerly chewed, and the surgeons who used to be thus employed had their mouths so excoriated as to be unable to continue the process longer than two days together; but tasting is now seldom had recourse to. It is now examined, however, very carefully, and divided into a first, a second, and a third sort. The last is rejected, and the two former only should be sent to Europe. The bark of large branches and that of very small are rejected : the first has a reddish brown hue, a rough surface, tastes disagreeably pungent, and feels gritty in the mouth: the second is of a light straw colour, is thin, has little aroma and as little taste. Both kinds are occasionally found in the market. The coarse kind, in particular, is sold under the name of cassia; although the greater part of the cassia of the shops comes from Canton.

1 The other sorts mentioned by Seba are :-Sandy cinnamon, welle coronde, which feels gritty when chewed; glutinous cinnamon, sewel coronde; insipid and inodorous cinnamon, nicke coronde; drum cinnamon, dawel coronde, so named because the natives make drums of the wood; prickly cinnamon, catte coronde; flowering cinnamon, mael coronde, the tree being always in bloom; and three-leaved cinnamon, toupat coronde.-Phil. Trans, xxxvi. 97-105.

2 Under the moodeliars are inferior officers named mohandrums and aratchays; and, in 1811, General Maitland appointed a superior, who is named maha-mooddiar.

Ceylon cinnamon is brought home in bags or bales, weighing 92 lbs. each2: and, in stowing it, black pepper is mixed with the bales to preserve the cinnamon. According to Mr. Marshall's account, the annual quantity of cinnamon sold at the East India Company's sales, taken on an average of eight years, up to 1810, is 318,258 lbs., at an average price of six shillings per pound.3 But much cinnamon, of an inferior kind, reaches Europe through private merchants, particularly from China.

The oil of cinnamon is prepared by macerating the bark4 in sea water for two days, then distilling with a slow fire, and separating the oil from the water with which it comes over. A light oil comes over, which swims on the water; and a heavy oil, which gradually sinks in it: the light oil soon separates from the water; but the heavy falls down very slowly, requiring ten or more days for its complete separation. It is generally adulterated with alcohol or expressed oil. The water is kept for repeated distillations. Eighty pounds of recent cinnamon are required to procure two ounces and a half of oil; one part of which is light oil, and rather more than two parts heavy oil. Cinnamon which has been kept yields two ounces of light oil and five of heavy oil. Good cinnamon is sometimes intermixed with cinnamon from which the oil has been drawn, and with cassia. The former is detected by the weakness of its odour and taste; and the latter by its thickness, smooth fracture, and remarkably slimy taste.

1 Prior to the 15th century, all the cinnamon used in Europe was imported by the Arabs, and passed through the hands of the Venetians; after this the Portuguese became the sole importers, and continued to be so until 1645, when their trade was divided with the Dutch, who obtained entire possession of it in 1658, and were the principal cinnamon merchants until 1796, when Ceylon fell into the power of the British.

2 The bags are made of cloth of the cocoa-nut bark.

3 Annals of Phil., vol. x. p. 358.

4 The bark of the roots yields an aromatic essential oil, denominated oil of camphor, which is used in Ceylon as a rubefacient in painful affections of the joints, and in sprains. Oil of cinnamon has always been dear. Alston says, that he saw the finest Oriental sold in Holland, in 1721, at 50 stivers the drachm, "or the common price of the pound of cinnamon at Amsterdam."-Led. on Mat. Med. vol. ii. p. 7.

Cinnamon from China is imported under the name of cassia. It is usually in single quills, which are thicker, rougher, denser, and break with a shorter fracture than the fine Ceylon cinnamon. It is thus readily distinguished, but the distinction is rendered more evident when it is made into infusion. The infusion of the fine cinnamon affords no blue tint on the addition of tincture of iodine; that of cassia becomes blue, owing to the cellular part, which contains fecula, being left on the bark.

Qualities.-Cinnamon has a very pleasant fragrant odour, and a pungent, aromatic, sweetish taste; and the pieces, when chewed, soften in the mouth. When it is very hot, without sweetness, and leaves a mawkish taste in the mouth, it is of an inferior quality. The best is rather pliable, but breaks in splinters; is as thin as paper, and of a light yellowish colour: thickness and a dark or brown colour are marks of inferiority. What is called Chinese cinnamon, or cassia, is darker coloured, rougher, denser, and breaks shorter. The taste is harsher, more pungent and ligneous, without the sweetness of the Ceylon cinnamon. The age of the tree influences much the character of the cinnamon: it should be five years old in dry places, and nine in moist and shady situations. The trees on elevated sandy situations, exposed to the direct rays of the sun, have the sweetest odour, and furnish the most valuable bark. These qualities depend on the essential oil, which may be separated by macerating the bark in alcohol, and distilling the tincture; in which process the oil does not rise with the spirit, but remains in the retort.

From xvj. of the bark, Neumann obtained only two scruples and a half of oil.1 It has a pale gold colour, is heavier than water, perfectly soluble in alcohol, and has the odour and taste of the cinnamon concentrated.

1 Neumanns Chymistry, ii. 188.