PHARMACOPCEIAL VEGETABLE DRUGS.

pods of the musk-deer, indicating its abundance at that date. The useof musk as a perfume antedates European record, whilst its introduc-tion as a stimulant has no record of its origin. This writer learnedduring his Services in prescription pharmacies that when tincture ofmusk was prescribed, the patient was expected to die.

MYRISTICA

The tree yielding nutmeg, Myristica fragrans, is native to NewGuinea and islands of the Malay Archipelago, from whence it hasbeen introduced to Sumatra, Brazil, the West Indies, and other coun-tries favorable to its cultivation. It has been asserted that the nutmegwas not known to the ancients, but von Martius (409), Flora Brasili-ensis, 1860, contends that it was mentioned in the "Comedies ofPlautus," about two centuries B. C. The nutmeg has been an articleof import and export from Aden since the middle of the twelfth Cen-tury, and by the end of that Century both nutmeg and mace hadreached Northern Europe. This spiee came naturally into domesticculinary use, it being classed with mace, cloves, calamus, etc. Itsuse in legalized medicine, also, has been chiefly in the direction of aflavor to other substances, and followed similar empirical preparations.

MYRRHA

Myrrh, a gum-resin from Commiphora myrrha, has been a con-stituent of incense, perfume, and such, in ceremonial religious life, aswell as an article employed by the common people from the days ofthe most remote antiquity. It was one of the rare and precious gum-resins in the days of the Bible, being mentioned in connection withsuch substances as frankincense and olibanum. That it was highlyvalued in the days of Solomon is evident from the fact that it is men-tioned conspicuously in connection with the gifts brought by theQueen of Sheba to that monarch. It is yet obtained from Arabia, thepresent writer finding it in the bazaars of Aden (and adjacent Arabbazaars), a city that had an existence as a port of export for Orientalproduets in very early days. Theophrastus (633), Pliny (514), andother early writers mention this drug, which from all times has beenvalued in domestic medicine for its aromatic qualities, and as a constitu-ent of incense in religious ceremonies. In Herodotus (Macaulay,Book II, p. 153) it is named as one of the substances used by the Egyp-tians in embalming the dead.

"First with a crooked iron they draw out the brains through the nostrils,extracting it partly thus and partly by pouring in drugs; and after this witha sharp stone of Ethiopia they make a cut along the side and take out thewhole Contents of the belly, and when they have cleared out the cavity andcleansed it with palm-wine they cleanse it again with spices pounded up; thenthey fill the belly with pure myrrh pounded up and with cassia and other spicesexcept frankincense, and sew it together again."

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