1228
ELEMENTS OV MATERIA MEDICA.
Ceylon , it is probable that both are obtained from the same, or some nearly . 4llIspecies. Indeed it has been suggested that the plant may have been carried fr 0111 ^ t |,eto Ceylon : for the Bhoodisl religion is supposed to have passed from the form erlatter country, and with it the practice of painting the temples and holy dressesgamboge. , () f
Preparation. —The only account which we possess of the met' 1obtaining Siam gamboge, is that given to Konig by a Catholic p ne - . • .siding at Cochin-China (Murray, App. Med. iv. 65b). According
to
tln s
Liuiuy ^ tit, iv. ucmj j .
statement, when the leaves or branchlets are broken, a yellow milky .1'issues ffuttatim (hence the origin of the term Gummi GutUe a Pl ) lCl ])(1 tgamboge), and is received either on the leaves of the tree, or in c° c ° a . ^shells, and from thence is transferred into large flat earthen vessels,''it is allowed to harden during the summer season, and is afterwardsveloped with leaves. The cylindrical or pipe variety receives its h ,nU tcbeing run into the joints of the bamboo, while it is in the liq lll(l s p,..(White, Voyage to the China Seas, Boston , 1823, p. 250, quoted by ^A. T. Thomson in the Lond. Dispens .) A few years since there "importation of gamboge in the bamboo cylinders (gamboge in theEach cylinder or stem was about twenty-one inches long and one /t j 0 nand a half in diameter, closed at the lower end by the transverse p° slof the nodus, and at the upper by a piece of oil skin. j,i
In Ceylon , gamboge is obtained by wounding the bark of thevarious places with a sharp stone, when the flowers begin to a l’l ^The cream-like juice which exudes, hardens in the sun (Murray, °P\ 0 {pp. 108 and 657). According to Mrs. Walker, the Cingalese metho ^collecting it is “ by cutting pieces of the bark completely off, a ^° U o0 ^c’Ssize of the palm of the hand, early in the morning. The gamboge ^out from the pore of the bark in a semi-liquid state, but soon tineand is scraped off by the collectors next morning, without injury hj 0tree, the wounds in the bark readily healing and becoming fit to 1111the operation again” (Graham, op. supra cit. p. 196). > a re
Description. —Two kinds of gamboge ( cambogia; gummi-9<.described by pharmacological writers—viz. the Siam and the G .
Of these the first only is known in commerce. . . pic
1. Siam Gamboge (Cambogia Siamensis, Ph. Ed.) — Tjn s ’^.^tgamboge of the shops. It is brought to this country sometimes ^ (|I -from Siam, at other times indirectly by way of Singapore , PeuaE-,’^Canton. It comes over in boxes, cases, or chests. In 1839, ttu '^ s cllper cwt.) was paid on 15 cwts; in 1838, on 40 cwts. It presentsin commerce in three forms:—1st, in rolls or solid cylinders; ~ / ( i,epipes or hollow cylinders; 3dly, in cakes or amorphous masses. B , Q ^.solid and hollow cylinders are known in commerce as pip e 9 a ^ pjCWhat is called coarse gamboge consists of the commonest piecesabove. , 0 i' c
a. Pipe gamboge consists of cylindrical pieces, varying in sizeto three inches in diameter. Some of them appear to have been t ]jcby rolling, but many of them are striated, from the impre ssl ® n -uii,bamboo stems into the hollow of which the gamboge juice has t> j 0 iiand not unfrequently portions of the stems are still adherent, t ]iCone occasion, as above mentioned, the gamboge was importestems (gamboge in the bamboo). The gamboge cylinders are s0, j^; a*distinct, and covered externally with a dirty greenish-yellow j gothers agglutinated, or even folded, so as to form masses oi varyUJo