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Show BALSAM OF TOLU TREE. gant syrup is obtained than that prepared in the common way with a decoction of the balsam. In its medical virtues it agrees with the other balsams. PREPARATIONS. Trncrore or THe Basaor Toru. (Tinctura Toluiferi Balsami, olim Tinctura Tolutana, E. ‘Vinctura Balsaini Tolutani. L. D.) Take of balsam of Tolu, an ounce anda half (one ounce, D.) alcohol, one pound (onepint, L. D.): Digest until the balsam bedissolved; and then strain the tincture through paper. This solution of balsam of Tolu possesses all the virtues of the balsam itself. It may be taken internally, with the several intentions for which that balsam is proper, to the quantity of a tea-spoonful or two, in any convenient vehicle. Mixed with simple syrup, it forms an clegant balsamic syrup. Syrup or Toru. (Syrupus Tolutanus. L.) Take of the balsam of Tolu, eight ounces ; distilled water, three pints : Class X. Decandria. Order I. Monogynia. Essent. Gen. Cuan. Calyx soothed, campanulate: Petals five, the lowest largest, obcordate: Style none. ene DESCRIPTION. _ Tus tree grows to a great height. The leaves are oval or ovate, aud stand upon short footstalks.- Thefruit is a round berry. ISTORY. This tree grows in Spanish America; the balsam flows from arin ava 1 3 ° ade in cia its ©bark during the hot season, and is brought to us in little gourd shells. It is of a yellowish brown colour, inclining to red; in consistence thick and tenacious: by ageit grows hardand brittle. The smell of this balsamis extremely fragrant, somewhat resembling that of lemons ; its taste warm and sweetish. Lewis says that he has sometimes procured benzoic acid from it. It yields verylittle volatile oil, althoughit impregnates the distilled water strongly with its flavour. By dissolving a proper quantity of sugar in this water, a moreele1 Boil for two hours. Mix double refined sugar with the liquor, strained after it is cold, that it may be made a syrup. The intention of the contrivers of the two foregoing processes seems to have been somewhat different. In the latter, whichis certainly the most elegant, the benzoic acid of the balsam alone is contained; the other syrup contains the whole substance of the balsam in larger quantity. They are both moderately im- pregnated with the agreeable flavour of the balsam. The syrup of Tolu usually enters into the composition of other medicines, except when given in the form of lozenges for a cold, which may be procured of almost any chemist, and is certainly very serviceable in appeasing the irritation productive of severe coughing. ‘The following forms an agreeable and very useful prescription in almost every cough, and merits justly the title of a placebo. PRESCRIPTION. R,.1. Take of spermaceti dissolved in syrupiof Rolujers is —— cinnamon water mille of almondsrn ps). the lax fs5 white of egg, see oe git « “sys. <3 Make into a draught, to be taken four times a day. scr. 1, (dre Ds dn 35 dri 11: |