Myrrh
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Myrrh. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
mer, an aromatic resin much prized by the ancients. The myrrh tree is a thorny shrub from ten to twelve feet in height, with a light gray bark, having the general appearance of the hawthorn. It grows in dwarfish thickets on the sunny slopes of the Levant, especially in Arabia, although it is found eastward as far as Bombay. Myrrh is obtained also from Somaliland on the coast of eastern Africa. The natives bruise the bark of the tree with a stone to encourage the formation of the gum. Like spruce and other gums, it exudes from cracks in the bark and hardens in the form of tears. When dried it has a reddish brown color. Myrrh was formerly much used in the making of ointments and perfumes. It was one of the precious gifts presented by the three wise men to the infant Christ in the manger. It was in great demand among the Egyptians for the embalming of bodies. Joseph, it may be remembered, was sold to a caravan of merchants on their way to Egypt with myrrh and other precious merchandise. The Turks and Italians are the chief modern purchasers of myrrh. The inferior grades are sold in India and China. See Gum ; Perfume
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in botany, Balsamodendron myrrha; also the genus Myrrhis. chemistry, a gum resin which exudes from Balsamodendron myrrha, a shrub growing in Arabia and Abyssinia. MYRTACEÆ, myrtle-blooms; an order of epigynous exogens, alliance Myrtales. It consists of trees or shrubs, with opposite or alternate entire leaves, usually with transparent dots and a vein running parallel to the margin.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The basic account still holds: myrrh is a gum resin tapped from a thorny shrub of Arabia and the Horn of Africa, and Somalia and Ethiopia remain the main sources, gathered much as Aiton's described in 1910, by wounding the bark and collecting the hardened "tears." The chief correction is nomenclatural: the Balsamodendron myrrha of Collier's 1921 entry is now placed in the genus Commiphora, family Burseraceae, as Commiphora myrrha. The market has shifted too — rather than the Turkish and Italian buyers Aiton's names, myrrh now goes largely into mouthwashes and gargles, incense, and the perfume trade, with tincture of myrrh long a standard antiseptic for mouth ulcers. Conservationists now warn that wild Commiphora stands in the Horn of Africa are being tapped faster than they regenerate, a pressure no 1910 writer would have imagined.
Written for this edition, 2026.