Aloes

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the inspissated juice of the aloe. There are four principal kinds, two officinal. (1) Barbadoes aloes (aloe barbadensis), formed from the juice of the cut-leaf of aloe vulgaris. It is imported in gourds, and has a dull yellowish brown, opaque color, breaks with a conchoidal fracture, shows crystals dull under the microscope, has a nauseous odor, and is soluble in proof spirit. (2) Socotrine aloes (aloe socotrina), the produce of several species of aloes; it occurs in reddish brown masses, and breaks with a vitreous fracture. Its powder is a bright orange color. It has a fruity smell. It comes from Bombay. (3) Hepatic aloes, or East India aloes, non-officinal, is liver colored; its powder is yellow. (4) Cape aloes, the produce of aloe spicata and other non-officinal species, is a greenish brown color; this is given to horses. An inferior variety is called caballine aloes. Aloes acts as a purgative. ALOES WOOD (sometimes called also eagle wood, calambac, paradise wood, or agallochum), the heart wood of aquilaria ovata and aloes agallochum, trees of the order aquilariaceæ, natives of the tropical parts of Asia, and supposed to be the aloes of lign-aloes of the Bible. They are large, spreading trees. Aloes wood ontains a dark-colored, fragrant, resinresin intance, and is much prized in the East as a medicine, and for the pleasant odor which it diffuses in burning. A whi similar substance, still more esteemed, is obtained in the southeastern parts of Asia and the adjacent islands, from the central part of the trunk of aloexylon agallochum, of the natural order leguminosæ, sub-order cæsalpineæ. This tree is found in Cochin-China and the Moluccas, where a character of sacredness is attached to it. Its fragrant wood is not only much prized in the East as a perfume, but many medicinal virtues are ascribed to it. Napoleon I. used it as a perfume in his palaces. The fragrance continues undiminished for years rs. Lign- . aloes is a corruption of lignum aloes (aloes wood).