previous next

CHAP. 22.—RESINS: TWENTY-TWO REMEDIES.

In treating, first of wines,1 and then of trees,2 we have stated that resin is the produce of the trees above-mentioned, and have described the several varieties of it, and the countries in which they are respectively produced. There are two principal kinds of resin, the dry and the liquid.3 The dry resins are extracted from the pine4 and the pitch-tree,5 the liquid from the terebinth,6 the larch,7 the lentisk,8 and the cypress;9 these last producing it in the province of Asia and in Syria. It is an error10 to suppose that the resin of the pitch- tree is the same as that of the larch; for the pitch-tree yields an unctuous11 resin, and of the same consistency as frankincense, while that of the larch is thin, like honey in colour, and of a powerful odour. It is but very rarely that medical men make use of liquid resin, and when they do, it is mostly that produced by the larch, which is administered in an egg for cough and ulcerations of the viscera. The resin of the pine, too, is far from extensively used, and that of the other kinds is always boiled12 before use: on the various methods of boiling it, we have enlarged at sufficient length already.13

As to the produce of the various trees, the resin of the terebinth is held in high esteem, as being the most odoriferous and the lightest, the kinds14 which come from Cyprus and Syria being looked upon as the best. Both these kinds are the colour of Attic honey; but that of Cyprus has more body, and dries with greater rapidity. In the dry resins the qualities requisite are whiteness, purity, and transparency: but whatever the kind, the produce of mountainous15 districts is always preferred to that of champaign countries, and that of a north- eastern aspect to that of any other quarter. Resins16 are dissolved in oil as a liniment and emollient cataplasm for wounds; but when they are used as a potion, bitter almonds17 are also employed. The curative properties of resins consist in their tendency to close wounds, to act as a detergent upon gatherings and so disperse them, and to cure affections of the chest.

The resin of the terebinth * * * it is used too, warmed, as a liniment for pains in the limbs, the application being removed after the patient has taken a walk in the sun. Among slave-dealers too, there is a practice of rubbing the bodies of the slaves with it, which is done with the greatest care, as a corrective for an emaciated appearance; the resin having the property of relaxing the skin upon all parts of the body, and rendering it more capable of being plumped out by food.18

Next after the resin of the terebinth comes that of the lentisk;19 it possesses astringent properties, and is the most powerful diuretic of them all. The other resins are laxative to the bowels, promote the digestion of crudities, allay the violence of inveterate coughs, and, employed as a fumigation, disengage the uterus of foreign20 bodies with which it is surcharged: they are particularly useful too as neutralizing the effects of mistletoe; and, mixed with bull suet and honey, they are curative of inflamed tumours and affections of a similar nature. The resin of the lentisk is very convenient as a bandoline for keeping stubborn eyelashes in their place: it is useful also in cases of fractures, suppurations of the ears, and prurigo of the generative organs. The resin of the pine is the best of them all for the cure of wounds in the head.

1 In B. xiv. c. 25.

2 B. xvi. cc. 16, 21, 22, 23.

3 Or, as they are called at the present day, the resins, and the oleoresins, or terebinthines.

4 Fée thinks that this name extends to the numerous species of resiniferous trees.

5 The Abies excelsa of Linnæus.

6 The Pistacia terebinthus; see B. xiii. . 12. It yields a valuable turpentine, known in commerce as that of Cyprus or Chios.

7 The so-called Venice turpentine is extracted from the larch.

8 It yields mastich solely, a solid resin.

9 It yields a terebinthine, and a very diminutive amount of solid resin.

10 Fée says, that if the same methods are employed, the same products may be obtained, though in general the larch yields the better terebinthine.

11 Fée thinks that lie is speaking of a thick rein, or gali pt, as the French call it, of the consistency of honey.

12 Boiled terebinthine, or turpentine, is still used, Fée says, in medicine, ; that process disengaging the essential oil.

13 In B. xvi. c. 22.

14 Fée thinks that in reality these are terebinthines, and not resins.

15 It has been generally remarked that aromatic plants grown on moun- tains have a stronger perfume than those of the plains Fée queries whetlhr this extends to the resins.

16 Though of little importance in modern medicine, resins and terebin- thines are still employed as the basis of certain plasters and other prepara- tions.

17 Such a potion as this, Fée says, would but ill agree with a person in robust health even.

18 There would be no necessity whatever, Fée says, for such a process, a plentiful supply of food bring quite sufficient for the purpose. Galen recommends frictions of terebinthine for the improvement of the health.

19 Mastich. The medicinal properties here attributed to it, Fée says, do not exist.

20 "Onera."

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

load focus Latin (Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff, 1906)
hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

hide References (4 total)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: