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Tranfactions. And the relation of Leo Africanus, who defcribes, as an eye witnefs, the making of tar on mount Atlas, agrees in fubftance, with the methods used by the Macedonians of old, and the people of New England at this day.

18. Jonftonus in his Dendrographia, is of opi nion, that pitch was anciently made of cedar, as well as of the pine and fir grown old and oily. It fhould feem indeed that one and the fame word was used by the ancients in a large fenfe, fo as to comprehend the juices iffuing from all thofe trees. Tar and all forts of exfudations from evergreens are, in a general acceptation, included under the name refin. Hard coarfe refin or dry pitch is made from tar, by letting it blaze till the moisture is fpent. Liquid refin is properly an oily vifcid juice oozing from the bark of evergreen trees, either fpontaneously or by incifion. It is thought to be the oil of the bark infpiffated by the fun. As it iffues from the tree it is liquid, but becomes dry and hard being condensed by the fun or by fire.

19. According to Theophraftus, refin was ob tained by ftripping off the bark from pines, and by incifions made in the filver fir and the pitch pine. The inhabitants of mount Ida, he tells us, ftripped the trunk of the pine on the funny fide two or three cubits from the ground. He obferves that a good pine might be made to yield refin every year; and indifferent every other year; and the weaker trees once in three years; and that three runnings were as much as a tree could bear. It is remarked by the fame author, that a pine doth not at once produce fruit and refin, but the former only in its youth, the latter in its old age.

20. Turpentine is a fine refin. Four kinds of this are in ufe. The turpentine of Chios or Cy

prus

prus which flows from the turpentine tree; the Venice turpentine which is got by piercing the Larch tree; the Strafburgh Turpentine which Mr. Ray informs us is procured from the knots of the filver fir; it is fragrant and grows yellow with age: The fourth kind is common turpentine, neither tranfparent, nor fo liquid as the former; and this Mr. Ray taketh to flow from the mountain pine. All thefe turpentines are useful in the fame intentions. Theophraftus faith the best refin or turpentine is got from the Terebinthus growing in Syria and fome of the Greek islands. The next beft from the Qlver fir and pitch pine.

21. Turpentine is on all hands allowed to have great medicinal virtues. Tar and it's infufion contain thofe virtues. Tar water is extremely pectoral and restorative, and, if I may judge from what experience I have had, it poffeffeth the most valuable qualities afcribed to the feveral balfams of Peru, of Tolu, of Capivi, and even to the balm of Gilead; fuch is it's virtue in afthmas and pleurifies, in obftructions and ulcerous erofions of the inward parts. Balfams, as hath been already obferved, are apt to offend the ftomach. But tar-water may be taken without offending the ftomach: For the ftrengthening whereof it is the beft medicine I have ever tried.

22. The folly of man rateth things by their fcarcenefs, but Providence hath made the most useful things most common. Among thofe liquid oily extracts from trees and fhrubs which are termed balfams, and valued for medicinal virtues, tar may hold it's place as a moft valuable balfam. It's fragrancy fheweth, that it is poffeffed of active qualities, and it's oilinefs, that it is fitted to retain them. This excellent balfam may be pur

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chafed for a penny a pound, whereas the balfam of Judæa, when moft plenty, was fold on the very fpot that produced it, for double it's weight in filver, if we may credit Pliny; who alfo informs us that the best balfam of Judæa flowed only from the bark, and that it was adulterated with refin and oil of turpentine. Now comparing the virtues I have experienced in tar, with thofe I find afcribed to the precious balm of Judæa, of Gilead, or of Mecha (as it is diverfly called) I am of opinion, that the latter is not a medicine of more value or efficacy than the former.

23. Pliny fuppofed amber to be a refin, and to diftil from fome fpecies of pine, which he gathered from it's fmell. Nevertheless it's being dug out of the earth fhews it to be a foffil, though of a very different kind from other foffils. But thus much is certain, that the medicinal virtues of amber are to be found in the balfamic juices of pines and firs. Particularly the virtues of the most valuable preparation, I mean falt of amber, are in a great degree answered by tar-water, as a detergent, diaphoretic, and diuretic.

24. There is, as hath been already obferved, more or less oil and balfam in all evergreen trees, which retains the acid fpirit, that principle of life and verdure; the not retaining whereof in fufficient quantity, caufeth other plants to droop and wither. Of these evergreen trees productive of refin, pitch, and tar, Pliny enumerates fix kinds in Europe; Jonftonus reckons up thrice that number of the pine and fir family. And indeed, their number, their variety, and their likeness makes it difficult to be exact.

25. It is remarked both by Theophraftus and Jonftonus, that trees growing in low and fhady places do not yield fo good tar, as thofe which

grow

grow in higher and more expofed fituations. And Theophraftus further obferves, that the inhabitants of mount Ida in Afia, who diftinguish the Idæan pine from the maritime, affirm, that the tar flowing from the former is in greater plenty, as well as more fragrant than the other. Hence it should feem, the pines or firs in the mountains of Scotland, might be employed that way, and rendred valuable; even where the timber, by it's remotenefs from water-carriage, is of fmall value. What we call the Scotch fir is falfly fo called, being in truth a wild foreft pine, and (as Mr. Ray informs us) agreeing much with the defcription of a pine growing on mount Olympus in Phrygia, probably the only place where it is found out of thefe iflands; in which of late years it is fo much planted and culti vated with fo little advantage, while the cedar of Lebanon might perhaps be raised, with little more trouble, and much more profit and ornament.

26. The pines which differ from the firs in the length and difpofition of their leaves and hardness of the wood, do not, in Pliny's account, yield fo much refin as the fir trees. Several fpecies of both are accurately defcribed and delineated by the naturalifts. But they all agree fo far as to feem related. Theophraftus gives the preference to that refin which is got from the filver fir and pitch tree (ἐλάτη and πίτυς) before that yielded by the pine, which yet, he faith, is in greater plenty. Pliny, on the contrary, affirms that the pine produceth the fmalleft quantity. It fhou'd seem therefore that the interpreter of Theophraftus might have been miftaken, in rendering aan by pinus, as well as Jonftonus, who likewife takes the pine for the ad of Theophraftus. Hardouin will have the pinus of Pliny to have been by others called xn, but by Theophraftus wirvs. Ray thinks the common

πίτνς.

fir, or picea of the Latins, to be the male fir of Theophraftus. This was probably the fpruce fir; for the picea, according to Pliny, yields much refin, loves a cold and mountainous fituation, and is diftinguished, tonfili facilitate, by it's fitnefs to be fhorn, which agrees with the fpruce fir, whereof I have feen close thorn hedges.

27. There feems to have been fome confufion in the naming of these trees, as well among the ancients as the moderns. The ancient Greek and Latin names are by later authors applied very differently. Pliny himself acknowledgeth, it is not eafy even for the skilful to diftinguish the trees by their leaves, and know their fexes and kinds: and that difficulty is fince much encreased, by the difcovery of many new fpecies of that evergreen tribe, growing in various parts of the globe. But defcriptions are not fo eafily mifapplied as names. Theophraftus tells us, that wirus differeth from

dan, among other things, in that it is neither fo tall nor fo ftreight, nor hath fo large a leaf. The fir he diftinguifheth into male and female: the latter is fofter timber than the male, it is alfo a taller and fairer tree, and this is probably the filver fir.

28. To fay no more on this obfcure bufinefs which I leave to the critics, I fhall obferve that according to Theophraftus not only the turpentine trees, the pines, and the firs yield refin or tar, but alfo the cedars and palm trees; and the words pix and refina are taken by Pliny in fo large a fenfe as to include the weepings of the lentifcus and cypress, and the balms of Arabia and Judæa; all which perhaps are near of kin, and in their most useful qualities concur with common tar, efpecially the Norvegian, which is the most liquid and beft for medicinal uses of any that I have experienced. Thofe trees that grow on mountains, expofed to

the

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