Spec. Plant. Willd. ii. 546. Cl. 10. Ord. 1. Decandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Leguminosae. G. 829. Calyx bell-shaped, five-toothed. Petals five, the upper one larger than the others. Germen longer than the corolla.

Legume with one seed only at the point.

1Avicenna first noticed nutmegs as a medicine. 2 Bontius da Medicind Indorum, 20. 3 Cullen, Mat. Med. ii. 204.

Species 1. M. peruiferum. Sweet-smelling Balsam tree. Hernandez Nova Plant., 8$c. Mexican Hist. fol. 51. cumjigurd.

Officinal. Balsamum Peruvianum, Zowd Myroxyli Perui-feri Balsamum, Edin.Dub. Peruvian Balsam. Syn. Beaume de Perou (F.), Peruvianischer Balsam (G.), Peruviaanische

Balsam (.Dutch), Swart Perubalsam (Swed.), Balsamo del Peru (I.), Balsamo de Quinquica (S.).

The Peruvian balsam-tree is a native of the warmest provinces of the continent of South America: growing in the mountains of Panatalmas1, in the forests of Puzuzu, Muna, Cuchero, Paxaten, and many other places near the river Ma-ranon, blossoming in August, September, and October. It is a very beautiful tree, with a smooth, thick, straight trunk, covered with a grey, coarse, compact, heavy bark, which is interiorly of a straw colour, and very resinous, as is every part of the tree. The branches extend almost horizontally. The leaves are alternate, and abruptly pinnate. The leaflets in two pairs, nearly opposite, petiolate, ovato-lanceolate, with the apex lengthened and somewhat blunt and emarginate, entire, shining, veined, and very smooth. The midrib, which runs through the whole length of the under surface of the leaf, is raised and pubescent; the common petiole is round and pubescent. The flowers are scattered, on axillary, erect racemes, longer than the leaves. The peduncles are roundish and pubescent; each supported by a small, erect, ovate, concave bracte, appearing to the naked eye like a tubercle: the pedicels are erect. The calyx is bell-shaped, dark green, divided into five small, nearly equal teeth, but with one of them so far separated as to be found under the germen.

The corolla consists of five white petals: four narrow, equal, lanceolate, and larger than the calyx; the fifth reflex, broad, and double the size of the others. The stamens are ten, inclining, and inserted into the calyx; bearing elongated, sharp-pointed, sulcated anthers. The germen is oblong, pedicillated, inclining; the style short, subulate, and crooked, crowned with a simple stigma. The seed-vessel is a straw-coloured, club-shaped, somewhat curved, pendulous legume, globular near the top, and terminated by the curved style. It contains, in a cell in the curved part, one seed only, which is crescent-shaped, and projects from the cell. The substance of the leaves is full of translucent, linear points, like the leaf of the orange-tree.

This tree is called quinquino by the natives, and also hirtziloxitl, cabureiba, under the first of which it was described by Hernandez, and under the second by Piso. The natives use the bark as a perfume. The balsam, which is procured in a liquid state, from incisions made early in the spring, is collected in bottles, and is called white liquid balsam. What is found in the shops is obtained either by boiling the twigs in water or by putting the end of a billet of the wood in a fire, and thus forcing out the balsam at the opposite end. It is imported in jars, each containing from twenty to forty pounds weight. When the Indians collect the white balsam in calabashes, which is the case in Carthagena and in the mountains of Tolu, it condenses and hardens, and forms dry white balsam, or the balsam of Tolu. Ruiz says there is no difference in these three balsams, excepting in name, colour, and consistence. A mixture of resin and some volatile oil with benzoin is often sold for Peruvian balsam; and the fraud is not easily detected.

1 MutisTdisoovered it, and sent a branch of the tree to the younger Linnaeus, about the year 17S1.

Qualities.-The balsam which we receive" has a fragrant aromatic odour, much resembling that of benzoin, with a warm bitterish taste, leaving a slight sensation of burning in the throat after it is swallowed, with some degree of sweetness. It is viscid, of a deep, reddish-brown colour, being that which is obtained by boiling the twigs, and of the consistence of fluid honey. Its sp.gr. is 1.14 to 1.15. Water boiled on the balsam becomes acidulated, and deposits on cooling crystals of benzoic acid. In distillation with water, a small portion of a volatile, limpid oil comes over, and benzoic acid sublimes in the neck of the retort. Its remaining matter is a resin. Ether, in smalt quantity, dissolves it readily and completely; alcohol also dissolves it, but the quantity of menstruum must be considerable. Sulphuric acid converts it into artificial tannin and charcoal. Treated with nitric acid, some prussic acid is formed, benzoic acid sublimes, and the residual matter is artificial tannin.1 The alkalies and their carbonates form with it thick masses, which, on the addition of sulphuric acid, let fall a resinous matter, and benzoic acid crystallizes.

Hence Peruvian balsam appears to consist chiefly of resin, volatile oil, and benzoic acid; but according to Stoltze the oil is of a peculiar nature, differing from volatile oil. The result of his analysis is, that 1000 parts of the balsam consist of 24 of brown, nearly insoluble resin, 207 of soluble resin, 690 of the above oil, 64 benzoic acid, and 6 of extractive matter.

Medical properties and uses.-'Balsam of Peru is stimulant and tonic. It has been regarded as expectorant also, and recommended in catarrh and other pulmonary affections; but it is contra-indicated wherever any inflammatory action is present; and to its stimulant operation on the pulmonary exhalants we may ascribe its use in chronic asthma and old obstinate coughs.1 In gleets, leucorrhoea, palsy, and chronic rheumatism, its tonic powers have proved beneficial; as well as in many other cases of debility. It may be given to the extent of f 3j. for a dose. As a local stimulant it is employed externally with great advantage for cleansing and stimulating foul and indolent ulcers; and a mixture composed of 3J. of the balsam and 3iij. of ox-gall, I have found extremely useful when dropped into the ear every day, after syringing with a solution of soap, in foetid discharges of the ear.

1 Hatchet. Phil. Trans. 1806. Thomson's Chymistry, 4th edit, v, 126..

Balsamum Tolutanum.

Syn. Beaume .de Tolu {F.), Tolutanischer Balsam (G.), Balsama Tolutano ( /.), Balsamo de Tolu ( S.).

The tree which yields the balsam of Tolu has been ascertained2 to be the Myroxylon Peruiferum, the same from which the balsam of Peru is procured. The Tolu balsam is the white balsam of Peru, hardened by exposure to the air. It is obtained from incfsions of the bark, from which it flows freely in hot weather; and is afterwards put into mats and calabashes to condense and harden, in which state it is brought to this country.

Qualities.-Balsam of Tolu has an extremely fragrant lemon odour, and a warm, somewhat sweetish taste. It is of a yellow, reddish-brown colour, and of a thick tenacious consistence, becoming solid and brittle by age. Exposed to heat it melts, easily inflames, and disperses, along with its peculiar odour, that of benzoic acid. In distillation with water, it yields a small. portion of volatile oil, impregnates the water with its odour, and by continuing the process benzoic acid sublimes. It is soluble in alcohol, forming a tincture which is rendered milky by water, but no precipitate falls. Mr. Hatchett found, that when it is dissolved in the smallest quantity of solution of potassa, its own odour is lost, and it acquires a permanent, fragrant smell, resembling that of the clove-pink. When digested in sulphuric acid, a considerable quantity of pure benzoic acid sublimes; and the same occurs during its solution in nitric acid, which also evolves traces of hydrocyanic acid.

1 Sydenham gave it in phthisis.

2 Vide A Description of the Tree named Quinquino in Peru, 8fc. By Don Hip-polito Ruiz; translated in Lambert's Illustrations of the Genus Cinchona, 4to. Lond. 1821. p. 92.

Medical properties and uses.-Tolu balsam is a stimulating expectorant; and although less heating than the other balsams, is nevertheless improper in pulmonic affections attended with inflammation. It forms an elegant addition to more active medicines in cases of asthma and chronic catarrh; and on the whole is more employed on account of its agreeable flavour than for any efficacy it possesses. The dose of the balsam may be from grs. v. to 3 ss., suspended in water by means of mucilage or yolk of egg.

Officinal preparations.- Tinctura Benzoini composita, L. E. D. Tinctura Balsami Tolutani, L. Tinctura Toluiferce Balsami, E. D. Syrupus Tolutanus, L.