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A gum resin, usually of a yellowish brown or amber color, of an aromatic odor, and a bitter, slightly pungent taste. It is valued for its odor and for its medicinal properties. It exuds from the bark of a shrub of Abyssinia and Arabia, the Balsamodendron Myrrha. The myrrh of the Bible is supposed to have been partly th…

d found in small quantities in opium, and extracted as a white crystalline substance of a bitter astringent taste. It is a narcotic. Called also narceia.

A bitter crystalline substance constituting the essential principle of Natal aloes. Cf. Aloon.

A white waxy substance having a hot, bitter taste, extracted from tobacco leaves and called also tobacco camphor.

oduced by the action of nitric acid on benzene, and called from its odor imitation oil of bitter almonds, or essence of mirbane. It is used in perfumery, and is manufactured in large quantities in the preparation of aniline. Fornerly called also nitrobenzol.

A cordial of brandy, etc., flavored with the kernel of the bitter almond, or of the peach stone, etc.

the schoolmen have styled the "materia circa quam." Sir. W. Hamilton. The object of their bitterest hatred. Macaulay.

eptible; as. to obliterate ideas; to obliterate the monuments of antiquity. The harsh and bitter feelings of this or that experience are slowly obliterated. W. Black.

A white crystalline substance, obtained from an exudation from the olive, and having a bitter-sweet taste and acid proporties. [Written also olivile.] Gregory.

A complex bitter gum, found on the leaves of the olive tree; -- called also olivite.

bstance (called ophelic acid) extracted from a plant (Ophelia) of the Gentian family as a bitter yellowish sirup, used in India as a febrifuge and tonic.

e resembling saponin, found in the root of sarsaparilla, smilax, etc., and extracted as a bitter white crystalline substance; -- called also smilacin, sarsaparilla saponin, and sarsaparillin.

is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Schaff-Herzog Encyc. And bitter penance, with an iron whip. Spenser. Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, And penance more will do." Coleridge.

bitant of Peru. Peruvian balsam. See Balsam of Peru, under Balsam. -- Peruvian bark, the bitter bark of trees of various species of Cinchona. It acts as a powerful tonic, and is a remedy for malarial diseases. This property is due to several alkaloids, as quinine, cinchonine, etc., and their compounds; -- called also…

A glucoside extracted from Phillyrea as a bitter white crystalline substance. It is sometimes used as a febrifuge.

A bitter white crystalline substance obtained by the decomposition of phlorizin, and formerly used to some extent as a substitute for quinine.

A bitter white crystalline glucoside extracted from the root bark of the apple, pear, cherry, plum, etc. [Formerly also written phloridzin.]

Pertaining to, or designating, a strong organic acid (called picric acid), intensely bitter.

A colorless viscous substance having a bitter-sweet taste.

A bitter white crystalline substance found in the cocculus indicus. It is a peculiar poisonous neurotic and intoxicant, and consists of a mixture of several neutral substances.