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.

    20/36 page 10
    weight was the seventh part of the Roman ounce, equal to about 62 grains 4-7ths or in round numbers sixty two grains ;* this was the Denarius coined in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, but subsequent depreciations took place down to the reign of Vespasian, when eight Denarii were coined from one ounce of silver. In the time of Christ the Denarius was of the higher value, and may be estimated at not less than seven pence three farthings of our money, a pound therefore of the Ointment of Spikenard being valued at 300 Denarii, would be worth £9. 13s. 9d. a large sum in a cheap country like Palestine, where, Mr. Tillemont and other writers assert, that a person in those times might live luxuriously on one Denarius per day, and it therefore follows that the two Denarii stated in the parable to have been given by the good Samaritan, being equal to fifteen pence halfpenny of our money, were fully adequate to supply the wounded man with all requisite nourishment and comfort for more than two days, when he probably would have recovered from the injuries he had sustained and would be enabled to resume his journey. From all that has been stated concerning the Ointment of Spikenard, it is not surprising that its price should have been great, and we accordingly always find it denominated “ precious or costly” by the Ancients. The Oil as prepared by the natives of Malvah is also costly, and if the tradition preserved amongst them respecting the distillation of it can be relied upon, and there does not seem any reason why it should be doubted, we may justly suspect, that the art of distillation was known and was practised by the natives of Hindostan long before it was known by the Arabians, who have generally been supposed to have invented it, but undoubtedly the Arabians borrowed much from other nations, and especially from the people of India, without acknowledging * Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins; and Hooper on Ancient Measures, &c.
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image