Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/309

Rh asthma and pectoral complaints. Balsam of Tola is like wise produced from a species of Myrospermiim, M. tolui- ferum. It is of a brown colour, thicker than Peru balsam, and attains a considerable degree of solidity on keeping. It also is a product of equatorial America, but is found over a much wider area than is the balsam of Peru. Tolu bal sam consists of a combination of inodorous resin with cinnamic acid, no benzoic acid being present in it. It is used in perfumery and as a constituent in cough syrups and lozenges. Liquid storax is a balsam yielded by Liquidambar orientalis, a native of Asia Minor. It is a soft resinous substance, with a pleasing balsamic odour, especially after it has been kept for some time. It contains a principle styrol or cinnamene to which it owes its peculiar odour, besides cinnamic acid, stryacin, and a resin. Liquid storax is used in medicine as an external application in skin diseases, and internally as an expec torant. An analogous substance is derived from Liquid- ambar Altingia in Java. Liquidambar balsam is derived from Liquidambar styraciflua, a tree found in the United States and Mexico. It contains cinnamic acid, but is destitute of benzoic acid. Of balsams entirely destitute of cinnamic and benzoic constituents the following are found in commerce : Mecca Balsam or Balm of Gilead, yielded by the Balsamodendron Berry i (B. gileadcnse of De Candolle), a tree growing in Arabia and Abyssinia, is supposed to be the balm of Scrip ture and the jSaXcrafjiov of Theophrastus. When fresh it is a viscid fluid, with a penetrating odour, but it solidifies with age. It was regarded with the utmost esteem among the nations of antiquity, and to the present day it is peculiarly prized among the people of the East. Balsam of Copaiba or Capivi is a fluid oleo-resin of a pale brown or straw colour, produced from several trees of the genus Copaifera, growing in tropical America. It possesses a peculiar odour and a nauseous persistent tarry taste. Balsam of copaiba contains from 40 to 60 per cent, of essential oil, holding in solution a resin from which capivic acid can be prepared. It is chiefly used in medicine for the treatment of inflammatory affections of mucous surfaces. Under the name of Wood Oil, or Gurjun Balsam, an oleo- resin is procured in India and the Eastern Archipelago from several species of Dipterocarpus, chiefly Z&amp;gt;. turbin- atus, which has the odour and properties of copaiba, and is used for it in East Indian hospital practice. Wood oil is also used as a varnish in India, and forms an effective protection against the attacks of white ants. A substitute for copaiba is also found in the dark red balsam yielded by Hardwiclcia pinnata, a leguminous tree.

Canada Balsam.—The oleo-resins obtained from coni ferous trees are usually termed turpentines, but that yielded by Abies balsamea is known in commerce as Balsam of Canada. It is a very transparent substance, somewhat fluid when first run, but thickening considerably with age, possessed of a delicate yellow colour, and a mild terebinthous odour. According to Fliickiger and Hanbury it contains 24 per cent of essential oil, 60 per cent, of resin soluble in alcohol, and 16 per cent, of resin soluble only in ether. It has been used for the same purposes as copaiba, but its chief uses are for mounting preparations for the microscope and as a varnish.  BALTA, the chief town of a circle of the same name in the Russian government of Podolia. It stands on the Kodima, near its junction with the Bug, and carries on a large trade in cattle and horses and the raw products of the surrounding district. It has two great annual fairs, the more important being held at Whitsuntide and the other in June. A variety of industries, such as tallow-melting, soap-boiling, tile-making, and brewing are likewise pro secuted. The Jews form a very considerable part of the population, which in 1867 numbered 14,528. Balta was in great part destroyed by the Russians in 1780.  BALTARD,, a distinguished French architect and engraver, was born at Paris in 1765, and died in 1846. He was originally a landscape painter, but in his travels through Italy was so much struck with the beauty of the Italian buildings, that he changed his profession and devoted himself to architecture. In his new occupation he achieved great success, and was selected to prepare the plans for some of the largest public edifices in Paris. His reputation, however, rests not so much on his practical performances in architecture as on his great skill in the art of engraving. Among the best known of his plates are the drawings of Paris (Paris et ses Monuments, 2 vols. fol., 1803), the engravings for Denon s Egypte, the illustrations of Napoleon s wars (La Colonne de la grande Armee), and those contained in the series entitled the Grand Prix de V Architecture, which for some time he carried on alone. He has also gained distinc tion as an engraver of portraits.  BALTIC SEA. The name by which this inland sea is commonly designated is first found in the llth century, in the work of Adam of Bremen, entitled Ckoroyraphia Scandi- navioe. The derivation of the word is uncertain. It seems probable that, whatever may be the etymology of the name Baltic, that of the Great and Little Belts is the same. The Swedes, Danes, and Germans call it the Ostsee or East Sea. Sketch Map of Baltic Sea. The Baltic is enclosed by Sweden, Russia, the German empire, and Denmark; and it communicates with the North Sea, by the winding channel which lies between the southern part of the Scandinavian peninsula and the northern peninsula of Schleswig and Jutland. The first part of this channel is in great measure blocked by the islands of Zealand and Fiinen, so as to form the three narrow passages which are known as the Sound (between 