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.

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    [from the PuiUMACEoriCAL Jodrnal and TKANSACTiONs/or February, 1857.] ON STORAX. \^i%i«i^.<:.^' /grf BY DANIEL HAIJBUET. ^^ij^^^ .X^'V**' Verum ad accuratam ac diligentem Materiae Medicte tractstiDPeili instituendam, remedii cujusque historiam et virtutes ^ medicis recensitas exponere hon sufHcit; sed etiam multa insuper cousiderauda sunt ac perpendenda.—Geoffboy, Tract. deMat Med. Wkitbrs on Materia Medica, ancient as well as modern, have generally concurred in applying the name Storax or Styrax to two distinct substances namely Liquid and Solid Storax. I might almost say to two groups of substances, since each comprehends two or more varieties.* The plant to which Storax, at least the solid kind, is commonly referred, is Styrax officinale Linn., a small tree of the Nat. Ord. Styracecs, occurring in Provence, Italy and the Levant. It is this tree, to which all authors admit, the account of Storax given by Dioscorides in the first century, refers.f In fact, it is not unreasonable to suppose that a tree so nearly allied to that producing Benzoin, should be capable of affording an analogous product. That it may under certain favourable circumstances exude a fragrant resin, even in France and Italy, we know from the positive testimony of two authors, the first of whom, Duhamel, has written in these words: J'ai trouv^ en Provence, pres de la Chartreuse de Montrieu, sur de gros Aliboufiers, des ecoulements assez considerables d'un baume tr^s-odorant. II n'est pas douteux, ce me semble, que ces Aliboufiers ne fournissent du Storax. X The second author is the Abb6 Mazeas who, in a communication under date 18 Jan. 1769 addressed to the Journal des Sgavans,% states that on a plain in the neighbourhood of Tivoli, near Rome, sheltered on the N. and N.E. by a chain of mountains contiguous to Monte Genarro, Rocca Giovane, S. Polo &c. which form a semi-circle open to the south,—in fact, in a very warm situation, the Styrax shrub yields by incisions in its bark, the valued exudation known as Styrax en larmes. As the account of Storax left us by Dioscorides, who was a native of Cilicia, one of the countries affording the drug, is important, I will here give its • A conventional distinction of confining the name Storax to the solid drug and Styrax to the Ivpiid, is adopted by some modern authors. But as such a use of terms leads to some in- consistency, I have not adopted it, but employ the word Storax as the English equivalent of the original Greek word ZnJpaf. + Perhaps I ought to except Professor Orphanides of Athens, who has hinted that the text of Dioscorides on the subject of Storax, reqmres correction. Bulletin de la Societe Botaniqm de France. T. iij. p. 147. X Traiti des Arbres. Paris, 1755. 4to. T. ij. p.289. Montrieu or Montrieux is a little place about 10 miles to the north of Toulon, in the department of the Var. In this neighbourhood, the Styrax grows wild. In order to endeavour to obtain an authentic specimen of the exudation of Styrax officinale, I wrote to my friend Dr. Planchon of Montpellier, who at my suggestion kindly caused incisions to be made during the hottest part of last summer, in the trunk and branches of a large and fine Styrax growing in the Botanic Garden there. The experiment was quite unsuccessfm : neither »queous sap nor resinous juice flowed from the incisions. § Vol. for 1769, p. 105.