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prevent the flame from bursting forth (in which cafe the tar was loft) they fet on fire thofe huge heaps of pine or fir, letting the tar and pitch run out in a channel.

14. Pliny faith, it was cuftomary for the ancients, to hold fleeces of wool over the steam of boiling tar, and squeeze the moisture from them, which watery fubftance was called piffinum.. Ray will have this to be the fame with the piffelæum of the ancients; but Hardouin in his notes on Pliny, thinks the piffelæum to have been produced from the cones of cedars. What use they made of these liquors anciently I know not but it may be prefumed they were used in medicine, though at prefent, for ought I can find, they are not ufed at all.

15. From the manner of procuring tar (a) it plainly appears to be a natural production, lodged in the veffels of the tree, whence it is only freed and let loofe (not made) by burning. If we may believe Pliny, the first running or tar was called cedrium, and was of fuch efficacy to preferve from putrefaction, that in Egypt they embalmed dead bodies with it. And to this he afcribes their mummies continuing uncorrupted for fo many ages.

16. Some modern writers inform us that tar flows from the trunks of pines and firs, when they are very old, through incifions made in the bark near the root; that pitch is tar infpiffated; and both are the oyl of the tree grown thick and ripened with age and fun. The trees, like old men, being unable to perfpire, and their fecretory ducts obftructed, they are, as one may fay, choaked and ftuffed with their own juice.

17. The method ufed by our colonies in America, for making tar and pitch, is in effect the fame with that of the ancient Macedonians; as

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appears from the account, given in the Philofophical Tranfactions. And the relation of Leo Africanus, who defcribes, as an eye witness, the making of tar on mount Atlas, agrees in fubftance, with the methods ufed by the Macedonians of old, and the people of New England at this day.

18. Jonftonus in his Dendrographia, is of opinion, 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 fpontaneoufly 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.

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19. According to Theophraftus, refin was obtained by stripping 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 these 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 filver fir and pitch pine.

21. Turpentine is on all hands allowed to have great medicinal virtues. Tar and it's infufion contain those virtues. Tar-water is extremely pectoral and restorative, and, if I may judge from what experience I have had, it poffeffeth the moft 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 asthmas and pleurifies, in obftructions and ulcerous erofions of the inward parts. Tar in fubftance, mix'd with honey, I have found an excellent medicine for coughs. Balfams, as hath been already observed, are apt to offend the ftomach. But tar-water may be taken without offending the stomach: For the ftrengthening whereof it is the best medicine I have ever tried.

22. The folly of man rateth things, by their fcarcenefs, but Providence hath made the most useful things moft common. Among those 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 pot 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 those 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 fiell. 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 lefs 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 thefe 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 those which

grow

grow in higher and more expofed fituations. And Theophraftus further observes, 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 fhould 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 remoteness 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 these islands; in which of late years it is fo much planted and cultivated 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 described 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 feem therefore that the interpreter of Theophraftus might have been mistaken, in rendering dan by pinus, as well as Jonftonus, who likewife takes the pine for the woun of Theophraftus. Hardouin will have the pinus of Pliny to have been by others called wonn, but by Theophraftus wiTvs. Ray thinks the common

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