On storax / by Daniel Hanbury.

  • Hanbury, Daniel, 1825-1875.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On storax / by Daniel Hanbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    10/18 (page 8)
    islands Cos and Rhodes the production of Storax, has committed an egregious error, as they have never produced it. Moreover, the evidence of Mr. Multass proves, as I shall shortly show, that Stijrax officinale is not the tree yielding Liquid Storax. There are other exceptional points in Dr. Landerer's account, which I will for the present pass over, remarking only that the statement that liability to the punishment of death is incurred in the ease of a person being detected adulterat- mg Storax with turpentine, is characterized by Lieut. Campbell as a mere in vention. Previous to detailing the information which I have collected as to the method of preparing Liquid Storax, it will be well briefly to review the various opinions which have been held as to its origin. . 1. Many of the older writers on Materia Medica consider it an artificial com- pound ; Dale in particular, asserts, that what was found in the London shops in his time (1693) was altogether factitious.* 2. Those writers who adopt Dr. Landerer's statement, regard Liquid Storax as the produce oi Styrax officinale Linn. 3. By many authors, Liquid Storax is referred to Liquidambar styracijlua Linn., a tree found in the southern part of the United States, in Mexico, and in other parts of Central America. However capable that tree may be of producing an analogous resin, it is well ascertained that the Liquid Storax used in England, is all imported from the Levant; and there are sufficient reasons to conclude that such is also the case with that used on the continent and that it is certainly not the produce of America. I therefore dismiss the supposition that the Liquid Storax of com- merce is of transatlantic origin. 4. By some authors. Liquid Storax has been conjectured to be the produce of Liquidambar altingiana Blume. This tree is a native of the islands of the Indian Archipelago and of Burmah, where the inhabitants occasionally extract from it an odoriferous semi-fluid resin; but the product is not abundant, nor does it resemble the Liquid Storax of commerce; there is not moreover, the slightest evidence of it reaching Europe in any quantity. It is however, a curious fact that the name by which this tree is at the present day known to the Malays, is Basamala, a word very close to Petiver's Rosa Mallas. To this I shall revert In a future page. 5. Liquidambar orientale Miller, is regarded by Guibourt, Lindley, the authors of the French Codex, and some others, as the source of Liquid Storax, an opinion which I shall be able to show to be correct. [From the Pharmaceuticai, Journal and Transactions for March, 1857.] Having in a former number brought under review the various opinions current as to the origin of Liquid Storax, and stated the points on which I con- sider them erroneous, I will now proceed to communicate the information which I have myself received regarding the drug from three valued correspondents in the Levant, namely, Sidney H. Maltass Esq. of Smyrna, Lieut. Robert Campbell, R.N., H.B.M. Consul in the Island of Rhodes, and Dr. James McCraith of Smyrna. • Verum quod in officinis nostris pro Styrace liquido vcndituv omnino factitia res est, ut certior factus sum k pharmncopolifi variis Londiuensibus.—/Anrnmco/o^io, Lond. 1698, p. 427.