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Show 790 SCOTCH FIR. SCOTCH FIR. 791 of turpentine, in more than onecase of what is commonly called cially when mixed with other materials. ciatica, [ have actually witnessed considerable changes produced certained the pain about the hip to be mitigated ac. cording to the increased presumption of altered action in the essential oil, these resins do not produce the same stimulating ureter. Theefficacy of oleum terebinthine as a styptic has been spoken of by some practitioners, but 1 have not myself witnessed any decided advantages produced by it; aud, from having much more reason to confide in other medicines of that class, of late T have ceased to employ it; though, in uterine dischargesat. enfeebled habits, the morestimulative preparations of turpentine may certainly be exhibited with more safety than in the generality of diseases for which they aresaid to be calcu. lated. As a diaphoretic, in rheumatic and gouty complaints, ithorities for the employment of this me. there are not wat dicine, but in modern practice it is rarely resorted to. Neither have the solvent effects which it has been said to produce (and which seem to have been inferred only from what is known to take place out of the body) on biliary calculi received much ate tention in the present day. In Germany, Norway, and some parts of the Russian empire, the essential oil of the pine is free quently used asa remedyforlesions of tendons, and for bruises In England, this remedy has repute principally in general. among farriers; but the recommendations of authors so Misti guished as Heister, Platner, and Plenck, certainly entitle it to more frequent trial in chirurgical cases. But the use of the oil of turpentine is not confined to medi« cine. It is much employed by the painters for rendering their colours more fluid; and the concreteresins are usually dissolved in it whentheyare to be converted into varnishes. r lock he Brack Resin, on Conopnony. 1 course, extremely se As all the trees of this genus yield the same substance when treated in asimilar way, it is probable 1 The medicinal prop Tar. This well-known substance, obtained fromthe roots and other parts of old pines by a sort of distillatio per descensum, differs from the native resinous juice in having acquired a disagreeable empyreumatic quality from the action of the fire, and in con. taining the saline and mucilaginous parts of the tree mixed with the extractive and the oily. The Scotch pine is the species from which most of the tar used in this country is procured, andperhaps yields it equally good with its congeners. It is curious to remark howlittle the process employed in many countries differs from that which was followed by the antient Macedonians, and which is circumstantially described by Theophrastus in the third chapter of his ninth book, wherehe tells us that the billets were placed erect beside one another, andthat they were afterwards covered with turf to prevent the flame from bursting forth, in which case the tar was lost. The stacks were sometimes, he says, one hundred andeighty cubits in circumference, andsixty, or even one hundred, in height. ‘These huge heaps of wood being set on fire, the tar was made to flow from them in chan- Is the residuum of the process for obtaining the essential oil. This process, pushed as far as the nature of the substance will admit of, changes the colour to a deep brown or black, when the resin acquires the name of q effects as other preparations, and may be consideredas possess= ing astringency without pungency. Colophony is of considerable use in the arts. It enters into the composition of several varnishes, and is sometimes substituted for sandarach, Musicians rub the bows and strings of violins with it, in order to take off the more greasyparticles, as well as to counteract humidity. nels cut for that purpose. Common Resin s Being deprived of the inds of resin are, of opee te daanalle q m They are rarely used internally ; but scarcely for external purposes (particularly as plasters) t bedispensed with, being remarkable for their adhesiveness, that the antients did not confine themselves to one species for obtaining it any more than the mederns, and that some variety Was occasioned in the product according to thedifferent management of the fire, and in the cooling. Hence arises the confusion, and the difference of opinion among commentators respecting the terms Cedria, Cedraleon, Pissceleon, &c., which, after the most industrious collation of passages from Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Galen, and Pliny, it is scarcely possible at this day to refer to the precise substances which they were intended to designate. But we shall now proceed to point ont the mode |