Volume 2

Useful knowledge: or a familiar account of the various productions of nature, mineral, vegetable, and animal, which are chiefly employed for the use of man. Illustrated with numerous figures, and intended as a work both of instruction and reference / By William Bingley.

  • Bingley, William, 1774-1823.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Useful knowledge: or a familiar account of the various productions of nature, mineral, vegetable, and animal, which are chiefly employed for the use of man. Illustrated with numerous figures, and intended as a work both of instruction and reference / By William Bingley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    153/322 (page 129)
    BENZOIN. This balsam is used in medicine both in the form of a tincture and a syrup; and, in its medicinal virtues, it agrees with most other balsams. The syrup of Tolu is used in several medicines; and is also made into lo- zenges, which may be procured of almost any chemist, and&which are considered serviceable in appeasing the irritation occasioned by severe coughing. 140. BENZOIN or GUM BENJAMIN, is a concrete or solid and fragrant balsamic substance, the produce of a tree (Styrax b'eivzoe) zohich grows chiefly in the island of Sumatra. This tree has oblong leaves which taper to a point, and arc smooth on the upper surface, and downy beneath. The flowers are in loose bunches; they usually hang all on the same side; and are generally closed, which gives them the appearance of buds. In some of the northern parts of Sumatra, particularly near the sea coast, there are several extensive planta- tions of Benzoin trees. The seeds or nuts are sown in the rice fields, and they afterwards require no other at- tention than that the surrounding shrubs should be cleared away from about the young plants. When the trees have attained the age of six or seven years, incisions are made into the bark; and from these the balsam exudes, in the form of a thick, whitish, re- sinous juice. By exposure to-the air, this juice soon hardens: it is then pared from the bark, with a knife or chisel. For the first three years the trees yield the purest resins: this is of a white colour inclining to yellow, is soft, and fragrant. Afterwards, for the next seven or eight years, an inferior sort is yielded ; this is of reddish yellow colour, degenerating to brown. Afr length the trees, unable to bear a repetition of the pro- cess, are cut down, and split into pieces. From these is procured by scraping, a still worse sort of benzoin, which is dark-coloured, hard, and mixed, more or less, with parings of the wood and other impurities. The inferior sorts of benzoin are exported to Arabia, Persia, and some parts of India, where they are burned, to perfume, with their smoke, the temples and the houses g5