OF MADRAS.
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mucronate. The largest galls have a diameter of from ⅜ to 6/8 of an
inch, some are no larger than a pea. The walls are thin, brittle, and
translucent ; the taste acidulous, very astringent and slightly tere-
binthinous ; the odour terebinthinous. Most of the sacs contain only
a little fæcal debris, but in some skeletons of an aphis may be found."
The resin of P. Terebinthus or Cabul mastich, which is the only
variety met with in the bazaars of South India at present, occurs in
tears or pieces of various shape, size, color and consistence. The larger
tears, which vary in their broadest part from two to six lines, are more
or less flat and soft ; oval, circular, oblong or irregular in shape ;
pale-yellow or yellowish-white in color ; dull, opaque and waxy in
appearance ; odour agreeable and slightly balsamic, and taste slightly
terebinthinate. The smaller tears being generally dry, they are
roundish, ovate or oblong, hard and brittle. There is no doubt that
the larger tears have originally the same shape as that of the smaller
ones, but being soft they become more or less flat afterwards by their
own weight, &c. Although soft, the surfaces of the tears are not
moist, and they therefore do not, as a rule, adhere to each other.
Being already soft, this mastich becomes much softer and very ductile
when chewed, and the chewed mass can be drawn without breaking
to the length of 10 or 12 inches. It is entirely soluble in ether, and
almost so in alcohol ; perfectly insoluble in w ater and several fixed oils,
including oleum nucis. I am almost sure that it is also insoluble
in all fixed oils, but I have experimented only with 5 or 6 of them.
It is nearly insoluble in turpentine.
The above description is applicable only to picked and clear tears of
the Cabul or Bombay variety of mastich, but as found in commerce
the drug is generally mixed with many masses of larger size and less
regular shape, and of brown color, and often contaminated with earthy
and vegetable impurities. As mastich is considered more valuable in
the bazaar in proportion to the paleness and cleanliness of its tears, the
native druggists take the advantage of its insolubility in water, and wash
it well before exposing it to sale. The washed article is, of course,
much paler and cleaner than its original condition, and often sold
fradulently as the Europe or foreign variety of mastich. Although
the resin of P. Terebinthus and of P. Lentiscus are identical in many
respects, yet they differ greatly in two or three of their most important
physical characters, viz., while the latter is invariably hard, brittle,
roundish, oblong or ovate, the former is always more or less soft and
flat, as already explained.* There is also some difference betweeen
the therapeutic values of these drugs, which is in favor of their Indian
or Cabul variety. In all the trials I have made of these medicines,
I found the last-named variety more efficacious as a remedy for
gonorrhœa and gleet than the true or the Mediterranean variety of
mastich obtained through Arabia. The cheapness and abundance of
the former in this country are its additional advantages over the latter.
* I have just received a very good and authentic specimen of mastich from Constan-
tinople, through a Turkish gentleman, Moulvi Sayed Jamaloodeen Sahib Rúmí, who is
now in Madras. The larger tears in this specimen being flat and more or less soft,
it quite corresponds with my description of the Cabal variety of mastich, except that.
it is not opaque, but semi-transparent and much brighter than the latter. The drug
from Constantinople is no doubt the best variety of mastich from Scio.—M.S.