The balsam of Mecca has always been deemed a substance of the greatest value. When Selim, Emperor of the Turks, reduced Arabia and Egypt under his dominion in the year 1516, he exacted a tribute of three pounds weight of it yearly, which continues to be sent to Constantinople to this day. Besides this, part of the governor of Cairo's appoint ments include a right to receive a pound of balsam ; the like quantity was due to an officer who conduct ed the caravan of pilgrims to Mecca ; and half a pound to the Pacha of Damascus, who superintends the whole pilgrimage.
Notwithstanding the celebrity of this plant, Mr Bruce denies that it had ever been seen by the an by whom he probably means the Romans, as their descriptions are so various and discordant. Prosper Alpinus, who lived in the sixteenth century, does not seem to know the real class to which it be longs, and even within these few years M. Duplessy„ who has paid much attention to the exudations of ve is apparently not aware of its having been figured by Bruce, and also more recently by Dr Woodville. Such uncertainties of old excited a vio lent dispute between the inhabitants of Rome and Venice—whether the drug used in a medicinal com pound was truly the balm of Gilead; and the point be ing referred to the Pope, his Holiness directed that in formation should be obtained in Egypt, in consequence of which he decided in favour of the Venetians.
The balsam of Mecca is not the only one possessing exclusive medicinal properties, though it is, perhaps, more eminently distinguished by them. Sixteen bal samic plants of the same genus are enumerated by botanists, each exhibiting some peculiarity ; and the balsam of Tolu, obtained from the incisions of a shrub growing in some of the South American provinces, is thought to approach the nearest to the virtues of the former. It is highly aromatic, a powerful antiseptic; and not less efficacious as a vulnerary. It is also very rare and difficult to be procured, which has in duced impostors to offer adulterations or counterfeits under its name. That which is particularly substi tuted is the balsam of Peru, the product of another tree, and can be obtained in abundance either from incisions or decoction of the different parts. The secretions of these plants, howe4er, are neither in variably odoriferous nor salutary; the balsam of Car thagena exhales a penetrating disagreeable smell ; and there is a low evergreen shrub, a native of North Carolina and the Bahama Islands, producing a fruit which is deadly poison, and a balsam as black ss ink. (s.)