existence certainly as early as the reign of Edward I.[1] True myrrh is the product of Balsamodendron (Commiphora) Myrrha, a small tree of the natura.l order Amyridaceae that grows in eastern Africa and Arabia, but the name is also applied to gum resins obtained from other species of Balsamodendron.
1. Baisa Bol, Bhesa Bol or Bissa Bol, from Balsamodendron Kataf, resembles true myrrh in appearance. but has a disagreeable taste and is scarcely bitter. It is used in China, mixed with food, to give to milch cows to improve the quality and increase the quantity of milk, and when mixed with lime as a size to impart a gloss to walls. (2) Opaque bdellium produced by B. Playfairii, when shaken with water forms a slight but permanent lather, and on this account is used by the Somali women for cleansing their hair, and by the men to whiten their shields; it is known as meena hărma in Bombay, and was formerly used there for the expulsion of the guinea-worm. (3) African bdellium is from B. africanum, and like opaque bdellium lacks the white streaks which are characteristic of myrrh and bissa bol, both are acrid, but have scarcely any bitterness or aroma. (4) Indian bdellium, probably identical with the Indian drug googul obtained in Sind and Baluchistan from B. Mukul and B. pubescens, Hook, is of a dark reddish colour, has an acrid taste and an odour resembling cedar-wood, and softens in the hand.
As met with in commerce true myrrh occurs in pieces of irregular size and shape, from 12 in. to 2 or 3 in. in diameter, and of a reddish-brown colour. The transverse fracture has a resinous appearance with white streaks; the flavour is bitter and aromatic, and the odour characteristic. It consists of a mixture of resin, gum and essential oil, the resin being present to the extent of 25 to 40%, with 212 to 8% of the oil, myrrhol, to which the odour is due.
Myrrh has the properties of other substances which, like it, contain a volatile oil. Its only important application in medicine is as a carminative to lessen the griping caused by some purgatives such as aloes. The volatile oils have for centuries been regarded as of value in disorders of the reproductive organs, and the reputation of myrrh in this connexion is simply a survival of this ancient but ill-founded belief.
MYRTLE. The μύρτος of the Greeks, the myrtus of the Romans, and the myrtle, Myrtus communis (see fig.), of botanists, as now found growing wild in many parts of the Mediterranean region, doubtless all belong to one and the same species.
| Myrtle (Myrtus communis). | |
| 1. Vertical section of flower, enlarged. | 3. Berry, enlarged. |
| 2. Plan of flower in horizontal plane. |
4. Seed with contained embryo, 𝑒, much enlarged. |
It is a low-growing, evergreen shrub, with opposite leaves, varying in dimensions, but always small, simple, dark-green, thick in texture, and studded with numerous receptacles for oil. When the leaf is held up to the light it appears as if perforated with pinholes owing to the translucency of these oil-cysts. The fragrance of the plant depends upon the presence of this oil. Another peculiarity of the myrtle is the existence of a prominent vein running round the leaf within the margin. The flowers are borne on short stalks in the axils of the leaves. The flower-stalk is dilated at its upper end into a globose or ovoid receptacle enclosing the 2- to 4-partitioned ovary. From its margin proceed the five sepals, and within them the five rounded, spoon-shaped, spreading, white petals. The stamens spring from the receptacle within the petals and are very numerous, each consisting of a slender white filament and a small yellow two-lobed anther. The style surmounting the ovary is slender, terminating in a small button-like stigma. The fruit is a purplish berry, consisting of the receptacle and the ovary blended into one succulent investment enclosing very numerous minute seeds. The embryo-plant within the seed is usually curved. In cultivation many varieties are known, dependent on variations in the size and shape of the leaves, the presence of so-called double flowers, &c. The typical species is quite hardy in the south of England. The Chilean species, M. Ugni, a shrub with ovate, dark green leaves and white flowers succeeded by globular red or black glossy fruit with a pleasant smell and taste, is a greenhouse shrub, hardy in south-west Britain. The common myrtle is the sole representative in Europe of a large genus which has its headquarters in extra-tropical South America, whilst other members are found in Australia and New Zealand. The genus Myrtus also gives its name to a very large natural order, Myrtaceae, the general floral structure of which is like that of the myrtle above described, but there are great differences in the nature of the fruit or seed-vessel according as it is dry or capsular, dehiscent, indehiscent or pulpy; minor differences exist according to the way in which the stamens are arranged. The aromatic oil to which the myrtle owes its fragrance, and its use in medicine and the arts, is a very general attribute of the order, as may be inferred from the fact that the order includes, amongst other genera, Eucalyptus (q.v.), Pimenta and Eugenia (cloves). Myrtol, a constituent of myrtle oil, has been given in doses of 5–15 minims on sugar or in capsules for pulmonary tuberculosis, fetid bronchitis, bronchiectasis, and similar conditions. It appears to lessen expectoration in such cases. The leaves of Myrtus chekan are aromatic and expectorant, and have been used in chronic bronchitis.
MYSIA, the district of N.W. Asia Minor in ancient times
inhabited by the Mysi. It was bounded by Lydia and Phrygia
on the S., by Bithynia on the N.E., and by the Propontis and
Aegean Sea on the N. and W. But its precise limits are difficult
to assign, the Phrygian frontier being vague and fluctuating,
while in the north-west the Troad was sometimes included in
Mysia, sometimes not. Generally speaking, the northern portion
was known as Mysia Minor or Hellespontica and the southern as
Major or Pergamene.
The chief physical features of Mysia (considered apart from that of the Troad) are the two mountain-chains, Olympus (7600 ft.) in the north and Temnus in the south, which for some distance separates Mysia from Lydia, and is afterwards prolonged through Mysia to the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Adramyttium. The only considerable rivers are the Macestus and its tributary the Rhyndacus in the northern part of the province, both of which rise in Phrygia, and, after diverging widely through Mysia, unite their waters below the lake of Apollonia about 15 m. from the Propontis. The Caïcus in the south rises in Temnus, and from thence flows westward to the Aegean Sea, passing within a few miles of Pergamum. In the northern portion of the province are two considerable lakes, Artynia or Apolloniatis (Abulliont Geul), and Aphnitis (Maniyas Geul), which discharge their waters into the Macestus from the east and west respectively.
The most important cities were Pergamum (q.v.) in the Valley of the Caïcus, and Cyzicus (q.v.) on the Propontis. But the whole sea-coast was studded with Greek towns, several of which were places of considerable importance; thus the northern portion included Parium, Lampsacus and Abydos, and the southern
- ↑ Liber quotidianus contra-rotulatoris garderobae Edw. I. (London, 1787), pp. xxxii. and 27.
