r bastard Balm,
growing in our woods, especially in the South of England, and
bearing the name of "Mellitis." Each is a labiate plant, and
"Bawme," say the Arabians, "makes the heart merry and joyful."
The title, "Balm," is an abbreviation of Balsam, which signifies
"the chief of sweet-smelling oils;" Hebrew, _Bal smin_, "chief of
oils"; and the botanical suffix, _Melissa_, bears reference to the
large quantity of honey (_mel_) contained in the flowers of this
herb.

When cultivated, it yields from its leaves and tops an essential oil
which includes a chemical principle, or "stearopten." "The juice of
Balm," as Gerard tells us, "glueth together greene wounds," and
the leaves, say [40] both Pliny and Dioscorides, "being applied, do
close up woundes without any perill of inflammation." It is now
known as a scientific fact that the balsamic oils of aromatic plants
make most excellent surgical dressings. They give off ozone, and
thus exercise anti-putrescent effects. Moreover, as chemical
"hydrocarbons," they contain so little oxygen, that in wounds
dressed with the fixed balsamic herbal oils, the atomic germs of
disease are starved out. Furthermore, the resinous parts of these
balsamic oils, as they dry upon the sore or wound, seal it up, and
effectually exclude all noxious air. So the essential oils of balm,
peppermint, lavender, and the like, with pine oil, resin of
turpentine, and the balsam of benzoin (Friars' Balsam) should
serve admirably for ready application on lint or fine rag to cuts and
superficial sores. In domestic surgery, the lamentation of Jeremiah
falls to the ground: "Is there no balm in Gilead: is there no
physician there?" Concerning which "balm of Gilead," it may be
here told that it was formerly of great esteem in the East as a
medicine, and as a fragrant unguent. It was the true balsam of
Judea, which at one time grew nowhere else in the whole world
but at Jericho. But when the Turks took the Holy Land, they
transplanted this balsam to Grand Cairo, and guarded its shrubs
most jealously by Janissaries during the time the balsam was
flowing.

In the "Treacle Bible," 1584, Jeremiah viii., v. 22, this passage is
rendered: "Is there not treacle at Gylead?" Venice treacle, or
triacle, was a famous antidote in the middle ages to all animal
poisons. It was named _Theriaca_ (the Latin word for our present
treacle) from the Greek word _Therion_, a small animal, in
allusion to the vipers which were added t