Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 1 (of 2)

by A. C. Wootton

A hin was a measure equivalent to about 5½ of our quarts. The shekel was nearly 15 lbs., and some of the Rabbis insist that the “shekel of the sanctuary” was twice the weight of the ordinary shekel. At the lowest reckoning, less than 6 quarts of oil were to take up the extract from nearly 90 lbs. of solid substance. It will be seen on reference that the shekel weights are not definitely stated, but the verses can hardly be otherwise read. Some critics have suggested that so many shekels’ worth is intended, but this reading under the circumstances is almost inadmissible. Maimonides, a great Jewish authority, says the method was to boil the spices and gum in water until their odours were extracted as fully as possible, and then to boil the water and the oil together until the former was entirely evaporated. Doubtless the expression “after the art of the apothecary” (or “perfumer,” R.V.) was a sufficient explanation to those Israelites who had practised that art in Egypt. The consistence of the oil could not have been thick, for when used it trickled down on Aaron’s beard.

Rabbinical legends say that the quantity of the holy oil prepared at the time when it was first prescribed was such as would miraculously suffice to anoint the Jewish priests and kings all through their history. In the reign of Josiah the vessel containing the holy oil was mysteriously hidden away with the ark, and will not be discovered until the Messiah comes. Messiah, it need hardly be said, means simply anointed; and Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word.

Manna.

The manna of the wilderness provided for the children of Israel on their journey towards Canaan has no claim to be regarded as a drug, except that a drug has in modern times usurped its name. When the Israelites first saw the small round particles “like hoar frost on the ground” (Exodus, xvi, 14) they said, according to the Authorised Version, “It is manna; for they wist not what it was.” The Revised Version makes the sentence read more intelligibly by translating the Hebrew word Man-hu interrogatively thus:—“What is it? For they wist not what it was.” This Hebrew interrogation has been widely adopted as the origin of the name, but it is more probable that the Hebrew word man, a gift, is the true derivation. Ebers suggested the Egyptian word “manhu,” food, as a probable explanation. The Arabic word for the manna of Sinai is still “man.” This is the substance which scientific investigators have agreed is the manna described in Exodus. It is an exudation from the Tamarisk mannifera, a shrub which grows in the valleys of the Sinai peninsula, the manna being yielded from the young branches after the punctures of certain insects. Another Eastern manna, a Persian product from a leguminous plant, Alhagi Maurorum, and a manna yielded by an evergreen oak in Kurdistan, are still sold and used in some Eastern countries for food and medicine. But in Europe, and to some extent in the East also, Sicilian manna, the product of an ash tree, Fraxinus ornus, has displaced the old sorts since the fifteenth century. The commerce in this article and its history were investigated by Mr. Daniel Hanbury and described by him in Science Papers and in Pharmacographia.

The rabbinical legends concerning the manna of the wilderness are many and strange. One is to the effect that when it lay on the ground all the kings of the East and of the West could see it from their palace windows. According to Zabdi ben Levi it was provided in such abundance that it covered every morning an area of 2,000 cubits square and was 60 cubits in depth. Each day’s fall was sufficient to nourish the camp for 2,000 years. The Book of Wisdom (xvi, 20, 21) tells us that the manna so accommodated itself to every taste that it proved palatable and pleasing to all. “Able to content every man’s delight, and agreeing to every taste.” The rabbinical legends enlarge this statement and assure us that to those Israelites who did not murmur the manna became fish, flesh, fowl at will. This is in a degree based on the words in Ps. lxxviii, 24, 25, in which it is described as “corn of heaven, bread of the mighty, and meat to the full.” But the traditions say it could not acquire the flavours of cucumbers, melons, garlic, or onions, all of which were Egyptian relishes which were keenly regretted by the tribes. It is also on record among the legends that the manna was pure nourishment. All of it was assimilated; so that the grossest office of the body was not exercised. It was provided expressly for the children of Israel. If any stranger tried to collect any it slipped from his grasp.

Bdellium.

Bdellium (Heb. Bedoloch) is mentioned in Genesis, ii, 12, as being found along with gold and onyx in the land of Havilah, near the Garden of Eden. The association with gold and onyx suggests that bdellium was a precious stone. The Septuagint translates the word in Genesis, anthrax, carbuncle; but renders the same Hebrew word in Numbers, xi, 7, where the manna is likened to bdellium, by Krystallos, crystals. The Greek bdellion described by Dioscorides and Pliny was the fragrant gum from a species of Balsamodendron, and this word was almost certainly derived from an Eastern source, and might easily have been originally a generic term for pearls. Pearls would better than anything else fit the reference in Numbers (“like coriander seed, and the appearance thereof as the appearance of bdellium”), and this is the meaning attached to the word in the rabbinical traditions. Some authorities have conjectured that the “ד” (d) of bedolach may have been substituted for “ר” (r) berolach, so that the beryl stone may have been intended.

Aloes Wood.

References to aloes are frequent in the Scriptures. The first allusion is found in Numbers, xxiv, 6, when in his poetic prophecy Balaam describes Israel flourishing “as lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted.” The other allusions occur in Psalm xlv, 8, Proverbs, vii, 17, Canticles, iv, 14, and John, xix, 39. In the four last-named passages aloes is associated with myrrh as a perfume. Of course it is understood that the lign or lignum aloes, the perfumed wood of the aquilaria agallocha, the eagle wood of India, is meant, but as that tree is believed not to have been known except in the Malayan peninsula in the days of Balaam, critics have remarked on the extraordinary circumstance that it should be used as a simile by an orator in Palestine who would naturally select objects for comparison familiar to his hearers. It has been suggested, and with much force, that the original word in Balaam’s prophecy may have been the Hebrew word for the palm or date tree. The Septuagint translates the word “tents.”