On the spikenard of the ancients / By Charles Hatchett.

  • Charles Hatchett
Date:
[1836]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the spikenard of the ancients / By Charles Hatchett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    country as an article of merchandise, which circumstance seems to ascertain it to have been the true Nardus, for the Phoenicians who even in war appear to have retained their genius for commerce, could without doubt distinguish the genuine Nardus from that which was spurious.* Since this curious and valuable Paper was communicated by Sir Gilbert Blane to the Royal Society, not any additional informa- tion appears to have been obtained respecting the plant, nor of the Oil and Ointment of Spikenard so much valued by the ancients, for the purposes of medicine and luxury, until my friend Samuel Swinton, Esq. arrived in this country, after an uninter- rupted residence in India of thirty-four years, during which, he had rendered most important services to the East India Company, which services have been repeatedly acknowledged. This gentleman in the year 1830, presented me with some Oil of Spikenard, the first ever brought to this country, and at the same time communicated to me the following information. During Mr. Swinton’s residence in Malvah, he was attacked most severely by rheumatism, and after much suffering, was advised by some of the principal natives to seek relief by using as an embrocation a precious oil called by them Rhonsee Ke Teel (Oil of Grass) which proved to be Oil of Spikenard, and having become satisfied of its efficacy, he was induced to send some of it to his cousin George Swinton, Esq. the Government Secretary at Calcutta, who put it into the hands of Dr. (now Sir William Russell) and another eminent Physician, for the purpose of making farther trial of its medicinal properties, and these gentlemen having so done, corroborated the account given of its efficacy by the natives of Malvah. and the beneficial effects which Mr. Swinton himself had experienced. This Oil appears to have been little if at all known beyond the * Arrian: Lib. 6, Cap. 22, pp. 453, 454.
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