On the manufacture of Balsam of Peru / by Daniel Hanbury.

  • Hanbury, Daniel, 1825-1875.
Date:
[1864]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the manufacture of Balsam of Peru / by Daniel Hanbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    s brought from New Spain and the provinces of Guatemala and Chiapas and others in those parts where it most abounds, but that the balsam which is most nrized is that of Tolu.* 1 ' As to the balsam having acquired the name of Peru, a country so remote from its place of production, the circumstance is intelligible when we know that during the early period of the Spanish dominion, the productions of Central America were shipped to Callao, the port of Lima, the capital of Peru, and great empo- rium of its trade, and thence transmitted to Spain. From this cause the drug acquired the name of the country from which it was shipped to Europe, exactly in the same manner as Turkey Gum Arabic, Turkey Myrrh, East India Rhubarb, Bombay Senna, etc. have acquired and still bear designations very little indica- tive of their real origin. In proof of this I may quote an interesting passage occurring in De la Martiniere's Dictionnaire Geographique (Paris, 1768), where under the head Callao, the author enumerating its imports, mentions as coming from Sonsonate, Realejo and Guatemala, the Balsam which bears the name oj Peru, but which, says he, comes in reality almost entirely from Guatemala. He adds that there are two kinds of it, the white and the broion, the latter being the more esteemed.f In consulting other writers on Spanish America, I have also found incidental references to balsam, all tending to show that it was recognized as a production of Guatemala, and indeed of the very locality where it is collected at the present day. Thus Herrera, the dedication of whose work on the West Indies bears date 1G01, writes: — On trouve en ceste province [Guatemala-] plusieurs fontaines et sources d'eaux chaudes ayant diverges propriete's, vertus, et couleurs: il y a du bausme, beau et beaucoup, que les Espagnols cognurent sans l'apprendre des Iudiens, contre ce qu'un auteur en escrit. I'lus il y a de l'ambre liquide, la gomme auime, copal et suchicopal, et autres sortes de gommes et liqueurs tres-parfaits Le havre Acaxutla pres de la Trinite [Sonsonate] a 13 degre's de haulteur, est le priucipal port de la province, pour aller en Neuf Espagne, et en Peru.^ The following passage from De Laet's Novus Orbis sen Descriptio Indisi Occi- dentalism a work held in deserved esteem, is of peculiar interest as proving that the custom of charring the trunks of the balsam-trees was pursued by the Indians in early times, while the Spaniards had their own method of collecting the balsam. It occurs in the chapter headed San Salvador, San Miguel, Chu- luteca—specialis descriptio harum prooinciariim et eorum qux habent peculiaria and is as follows:— * . . . . Lo que mas importa es, que para la substantia de bazer Chrisma, que tau necessario es en la sancta Iglesia, y de tanta veneration, ba declavado la Sede Apostolica, que con este Balsamo de Indias se baga Chrisma en Indias, y con el se de el Sacramento de Confirmation, y los de mas, donde la Iglesia lo usa. Traese a Espana el Balsamo de la neuva Espana, y la provincia de Guatimala, y de Cbiapa, y otvas por alii es donde mas abunda/aunque el luas pre- ciado es, el que viene de la Isla de Tolu, que es en Tieraafirme no lexos de Cartagena.—lib. iv. c 28 '+''... Dans la meme rue du cote du nord, sont les magasins des marcbandises que les vaisseaux Espagnols apportent du Chili, du Perou et du Mexique. Du Chili viennent les cordages, les cuirs, les suifs ... Du Mexique, comme de Sonsonate, Realejo, Guatemala, de la bray et du gaudron qui nest bon que pour lc bois, parce qu'il brule les cordages; des bois pour les temtures, du souffre et du baume qui porte le nom de Pcrou, mais qui vient effectivement presque tout de Guatemala. II y en a de deux sortes, de blanc et de brun ; ce dernier est plus estimc, on le met dans des cocos quand il a la consistance de la bray, mais communciiient il vient dans des pots de terre en liqueur, alors il est sujet k etre falsifie, et melc d huile pour en augmenter la quantite.—De la Martiniere, Dictionnaire Geographique, (Pans, 17G8, iol.) °% Description des Indes Occidentales, traduif, de VJSspagnol, Amst, 1622, cap. xii. I have also consulted the Spanish edition published at Madrid, 1601-15. § Lugd. Bat. 1633, fol. lib. vii. c. 11.