Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/268

 BALSAMS five valves, and remarkable for the elastic force with which it bursts and expels the seeds. Garden Balsam. The I. hortensis, balsamine, or garden balsam, a beautiful and popular annual, sometimes improperly called lady's slipper, with finely variegated white, pink, red, purple, and lilac flowers, is the best known member of this genus. This loves a moist rich soil, and is raised best from the seed in a moderate hot- bed. The juice of some of the species of impa- tient, mixed with alum, is used by the Japa- nese to dye their finger nails red. BALSAMS. By the French chemists this word js applied only to those resinous vegetable juices which contain benzoic acid ; and of these there are but six, namely, the balsam of Peru, the balsam of Tolu, dragon's blood, benzoin, storax, and liquidambar. But by the Germans and English the term is not thus limited in its signification, being applied to all resins obtained from trees and shrubs, as also to some pharma- ceutical preparations, dividing them into two classes one containing benzoic acid, and the other not. The former class, consisting of the six named, are aromatic, resinous substances, composed of resin, benzoic acid, and a volatile oil, the last, according to the quantity pres- ent, tending to give liquidity to the substance. They are soluble in alcohol, and water being added resin is precipitated, making the fluid milky. In ether they are only partially soluble, and not at all in water. The peculiar smell of the balsams is lost by exposure to the air. Their taste is described as hot and acrid. The plants which furnish them belong to the orders styra- cea, leguminoice, and balsamacece. The second class of balsams are the semi-liquid and resinous juices composed only of resin and a volatile oil, and obtained mostly from plants of the orders coniferx, terebinthacece, and leguminosce. The turpentines, and Canada, copaiba, and Mecca balsams belong to this class. They do not differ essentially in their properties from the other balsams. The use of balsams is prin- cipally in medicine, but they also enter into the composition of varnishes, and are employed for some other purposes, which will be men- tioned in the description of each one. Ben- zoin and turpentine will be treated of under their own titles. A full history and descrip- tion of the balsam of Peru, by Dr. Pereira, may be found in the " Pharmaceutical Journal " (English) ; and an able paper, made up from this, is published by Dr. Muspratt in his work on chemistry, with which will be found draw- ings and botanical descriptions of the plants producing the balsams. So much error and uncertainty has prevailed in the accounts of this substance, that very elaborate investiga- tions have been made by Dr. Pereira and others to define its true character, and that of the plants producing it. There appear to be two balsams in Peru, one called the white balsam, and the other the black, which is the real bal- sam of Peru of commerce. Both are obtained from the myrospermum pubescem of De Oan- dolle, the one from the fruit by pressure, and the other by incision from the stem ; and both are procured exclusively "from the so-called Balsam Coast in Central America," the Pacific Balsam of Peru (Myrospermum pubescens). coast of San Salvador, between lat. 13 and 14 N. Sonsonate appears to be the most impor- tant district for the production of the balsam ; and the tree which there yields it is possibly a different species from the myrospermum pubes- cens, and has been temporarily called by Dr. Pereira the myrospermum of Sonsonate. Black balsam exudes from incisions in the trunk of this tree, and is said to be an admirable remedy for effecting the speedy cure of wounds. Spirit of balsam is made from the flowers, oil of balsam, an excellent anodyne, from the seeds and nuts, and white balsam from the capsules. The tincture or essence of balsam, called bal- samito, is extracted from these. The methods practised by the Indians of preparing the white