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.

    14/18 (page 12)
    His term Cotter Mija is the Arabic Ix^ Jai Kalr may'a, Ix^ may'a bemg one of the Avicennian terms for Storax, and Jai kalr (literally a drop), a prefix indicating its liquid nature.' The only other author with whom I am acquainted that alludes to Rosa Mallas is Garcia,t who, when describing the various sorts of Benzoin, mentions Roga- malha, which he asserts is the name applied by the Chioese to Liquid Slorax. Whether it is the resin of the Rasamala (Liquidambar altingiana Bl.) that is here mtended, and whether the Rosa Mallas of Petiver and the Rose Malloes of the Bombay List are but corruptions of the same term applied to a different substance, are points which I shall not attempt to decide. The residual bark after the extraction of the Liquid Storax, is known to pharmacologists as Cortex Thymiamatis, Cortex Thuris, Thus Judaorum, Narcaphthum, Storax Bark or Red Storax,X and is called in Turkish iS^Jti '■^'^^ Kara ghyunluk yaprak or more correctly ujOj^ »j3 Kara ghyunluk yapraghi, literally Black Frankincense Leaf. In modern Greek it is known by the simple name of irifo.^. The name ©ufAiafxa (Incense) does not appear to have any special application to Liquidambar Bark. Belon has asserted that this bark is called Maurocapno^ and authors have c^uoted the name on his authority. I cannot but think this an error; Mavfe Kamb signifies literally Black Smoke, and in modern Greek it is used by metonymy for Black Tobacco. It does not appear to be now applied to the Liquidambar bark. The name N<t<rxa<}>9£iy or Na'px<t<})9ov used by Dioscorides to designate a certain odoriferous bark from India, || has been thought by many authors to have reference to the modern Cortex Thymiamatis. But if the latter were collected in the days of Dioscorides, that author, a native of Asia Minor, could scarcely have been so ignorant of the locality of its production, as to have regarded it as an Indian drug. Moreover, neither the names iiaa-Ka<^Qov nor Napxafflov (nor Aa'xa<})Soy used by Paulus ^gineta^ perhaps for the same substance) are known in modern Greek. I confess therefore, I do not see evidence for identifjdng the Dioscoridean drug with the product of Liquidambar. The conclusions to which this long investigation leads, may be thus briefly summed up. 1. That the original and classical Storax was produced by Styrax officinale Linn. 2. That always scarce and valuable, it has in modern times wholly disap- peared from commerce. ♦ Lib. II. cap. 623. (ed. Venet. 1564).—It can scarcely be doubted, that in this chapter on *' Miha vel Mena which the translators have rendered Storax, Avicenna refers to the modern Liquid Storax. The passage is as follows : • * Storax humida alia est, quae extrahitur per se ipsam gumma : et alia est qua; extrahitur cum decoctione: perse autem extracta, est citrina, et quando antiquatur,_declinat ad anreum colorem, et est [preciosa et grata] : sed qnse extrahitur ex cortice est nigra : et illud ideo quoniam extrahitur cum decoctione corticis illius arboris, et quod extrahitur, est storax humida : et quod remanet sicut fsex et vinacia, est sicca. t Aromatum et simplicium aliquot medicameniorum apud Indos nascentium Eistoria, AntT 1674. J Amygdaloid Storax is also sometimes called Red Storax. § Jeveiaussi deschurger vn brigantin dessus la riuo du port [de Rhodes], plein d'vne drogue propre en medecine, appellee Storax rouge. Les Grecs la nominent maintenanl Mauro- capno. Et m'a Ion dil qu'il crokt en I'isle.—Belon, Observations de plvsievrs SitiyvlariUz &c (1564) liv. 2. chap. 14. {{ ltaff-Ka<pOoY, ol ii vapxacfflov, xai toDto Ik rnf 'iviiKnc xo/uiftrar to^ri Jb fXoiuht. evuafxiyov M'TtltriA.a.a-iy JojKOf, &u/uf(w/*ivo» Jia t^v liauWav, KoX fjLiyvvfxtvoy roTf o-xiuao-TixoTf ^vfMa/xaa-i, ixfiXovv Kol /xflTpaif f »-Tiyv<»/uiv>)» vTrobufjtiaa-biy. Diosc. de Mat. Med. cd. Sprengel, Lib. I. c. 22 ^ Lib. 7. c. 22.