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.

    13/18 (page 11)
    11 Adulteration.—Mr. Maltaas says that Liquid Storax is rarely pure, being adulterated by the admixture of sand and ashes. CoMMEKCi!.—Lieut. Campbell states that the quantity of Liquid Storax annually extracted, amounts to about 20,000 okes (500 cwt.) from the districts of Giova and Ull!\; and 13,000 okes (325 cwt.) from those of Marmorirza and Isgengak.* It is exported in casks to Constantinople, Smyrna, Syra and Alexandria. Some is also packed with a certain proportion of water in goat-skins and sent, either by boats or overland to Smyrna, where it is transferred to casks and shipped mostly to Trieste. It appears from Mr. Maltass, that formerly the whole, both of the resin and the residual bark, was bought by the merchants of the island of Rhodes, but at what period and under what circumstances this occurred, I have not been able to learn.-f Though I have no pretensions to be an Oriental scholar, I may be allowed to offer a few words respecting some of the eastern names of Liquid Storax and the bark which remains after its extraction. J Liquid Storax is known to the Turks by the name j^y^V. <—-^J^ {/^ Kara ghyunluk yaghy^ i. e. Black Frankincense Oil.% It is also called ^^^^ ^y^*^ Bukhur yaghy, i. e. Incense Oil and sometimes (according to Mr. Maltass) <tlU«s Sighala yaghy, i. e. Sighala Oil from the district between Melasso and Macri where much of it is collected. The Greeks designate it irvpa^ vypi, but often use the Turkish name Bukhur yaghy. In a Report of the External Commerce of Bombay to which my attention was directed by my friend Dr. Royle, the term Rose Malloes is applied to a drug enumerated under the category of Imports by Sea into the Port of Bombay. \\ The recurrence of this strange name which Petiver's account of Liquid Storax had made familiar, struck me ns very curious, and I wrote to Bombay for a sample of the drug so called This was kindly procured for me at the Bombay Custom House by Dr. Carter, and proved to be our ordinary Liquid Storax. It is imported chiefly from the Red Sea, which it doubtless reaches from Alexandria, to which port I found it was shipped from Rhodes. Here then is the explanation of Petiver's statement of the drug being carried southward from Suez,—it being in fact, on its way to India. * In English commerce, 40 okes are reckoned as equal to one hundredweight. + Dr._ Landerer's account appears to have reference to this period : and even his statement of the cultivation, of the Storax plant (whatever plant is intended) has some support from the following passage in Duhamel's Traile des Arbres T. ij. p. 288. An Levant on cnltive aux environs de Stanchir [Cos], les arbres qui donnent le Storax, et on les multiplie par marcottes. Dr. Landerer's Sovxpivfi, it will also he observed, is traceable in the Turkish name bukhur. X I will here acknowledge the assistance kindly afforded me by Dr. Greenhill, the translator of Rhazes, on the subject of Arabic names; and also that of J. W. Kedhouse Esq. with regard to Turkish names. § Olibanum is called in Turkish tlilij^ ghyurriuk. II The following is an extract from the Report referred to :— Rose Malloes. cwt. qr. lb. From Aden 5 0 0 value 186 rupees Arabian Gulf 41 0 0 1674 Persian Gulf 12 0 0 480 Total ,58 0 n 2240 rupees.