Littell's Living Age/Volume 127/Issue 1634/Amber

From Cope's Tobacco Plant.

AMBER.

Amber is formed by the pith (medulla, or marrow) which flows from trees of the pine species, as gum flows from the cherry-trees and resin from pines. It is, first of all, a liquid which bursts forth in abundance; then it is congealed by the cold, or by the heat, or by the sea, when the great tides rise and sweep it from the islands. At all events, it is thrown on the coasts, and it seems to swim with the waves, and not go to the bottom. Our ancestors, thinking that it was the sap {succus) of a tree, called it, on that account, succinum. What proves that amber is the product of a species of pine, is that when rubbed it exhales an odour like that of the pine, and that when set on fire it burns after the fashion, and with the scent, of a resinous torch. It is conveyed by the Germans into Pannonia (Hungary) chiefly; thence the Veneti (Venetians), whom the Greeks called Heneti, who are in the immediate proximity to Pannonia, and who live round the Adriatic Sea, have brought it into vogue. The fable which has connected the Padus with amber has an evident cause. In our own day, the Transpadanian peasant women wear an amber necklace, for the sake of ornament, no doubt, but also as a remedy, forasmuch as amber is deemed good for affections of the tonsils and the fauces, these and the neighbouring parts of the body being subject to maladies produced by the different kinds of waters in the neighbourhood of the Alps. From Carnuntum, in Pannonia, to the coast of Germany, whence amber is brought, there are six hundred miles, a fact not known till recently. Still lives the Roman knight who was sent to procure amber by Julianus, superintendent of the gladiatorial games given by the emperor Nero. This knight travelled over the markets and the shores of the country, and brought back such an immense quantity of amber that the nets intended to protect the podium from the wild beasts were fastened with buttons of amber. Adorned, likewise, with amber, were the arms, the biers, and the whole apparatus for a day. The largest piece the knight brought weighed thirteen pounds. It is certain that amber is also a growth of India. Archelaus, who reigned in Cappadocia, states that from that country (India) amber is brought in the crude state, and still adhering to the pine bark. It is polished by being sodden in the fat of a sucking pig. What proves that the amber first flows as a liquid is, that owing to its transparency different objects may be seen in the interior, such as ants, small flies, lizards. It is manifest that those objects got entangled in the amber when it was still in the liquid state, and that they remained imprisoned when the amber hardened. There are many kinds of amber; the white is that which has the sweetest scent; but neither the white nor the uncoloured is worth much. The deep yellow (fulvus, tawny, fallow) is the most esteemed. Though the transparency of the deep yellow amber is a recommendation, intense brilliancy is objectionable. To please there must be present, not fire but the resemblance of fire. The amber most in request is the Falernian, so called because it has the colour of Falernian wine. It is transparent, and has a softened splendour. Certain kinds attract by a tender shade, like the tint of boiled honey, but it ought to be known that any colour can be given to amber that is thought fit. A particular dye can be given to it by means of kid fat, or of the anchusa root; it can even be made to take a purple tinge. Moreover, when, by being rubbed in the hand, amber is enriched with an animating heat, it attracts straw, dry leaves, bast, just as the loadstone attracts iron. Bits of amber in oil burn with a brighter and more enduring flame than wicks of flax tow. Such is the excessive commercial value of this substance, that a small human effigy in amber is sold for a higher price than living and vigorous men. Verily, one censure (of such folly) is not enough. In the objects called Corinthian, copper mixed with silver and gold pleases; in carved objects the skill and genius of the artist delight. We have shown what recommends murrhines and crystals. Pearls are worn in the ears; gems on the fingers. In short, in all foolish superfluities there is either the satisfaction of vanity or there is real use; but as regards amber there is nothing to charm beyond the consciousness of possessing an article of luxury. Domitius Nero (the emperor), along with his numerous other absurdities, had given the name of amber to the hair of his wife Poppæa, and he had even celebrated the hair as amber in some verses; for fine names are never lacking for corporeal defects. From that moment amber was a third colour, much in request with the (Roman) ladies. Amber, however, is found to be of some value in medicine; but that is not the reason why women are fond of it. Worn as an amulet by children, amber is advantageous. According to Callistratus, whether taken in a drink or worn as an amulet, amber at all ages is medicinal in cases of madness and dysuria. This writer mentions a fresh variety, which is called chryselectrum, and which is (as the name indicates) of the colour of gold, and in the morning presents the most charming gradations of hue. For fire it has a signal hunger, and if it is near fire it catches flame and burns with immense celerity. This amber (if we may believe Callistratus) cures fever and other diseases, if it is worn on the neck; cures affections of the ear when ground and mixed with honey and oil of roses; cures dimness of sight, when mixed with Attic honey; cures affections of the stomach, either when taken in a powder alone, or drunk in water along with mastic. Moreover, amber can be efficiently and extensively employed in imitating translucid precious stones, especially amethysts; for, as we have said, it can be tinged of every colour. The pertinacity of certain authors forces us to speak, next of all, of lyncurium; for those who do not maintain that it is a kind of amber, yet, at least, declare that it is a precious stone. They affirm that lyncurium is the product of the urine of the lynx, but blended with a kind of earth, this animal (so these authors say) covering up his urine as if grudging the benefit man might derive from it; that it has the same tint as the fire-coloured amber, and can be carved; that it attracts not only leaves and straws but thin plates of brass and iron, which Theophrastus, giving credence to the statements of Diocles, believed.