Letter to the Principal Medical Store-keeper at Balaclava

Dated April 7, 18561

Page 1 of 1

General Hospital
Balaclava
April 7/56
Sir,
May I ask whether it would be
possible to borrow or to purchase
6 bottles Tincture of Myrrh2
(if 4 oz. bottles)
from the Medical Stores, replacing
them in any way you shall direct,
either in money or in kind?
I should not make this request
had I not found upon enquiry that
the article is not to be had nearer
than Constantinople - otherwise than from
the Govt stores.
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your obedt Servt
Florence Nightingale
To the
Principal Medical Store-keeper
Balaclava

1. The Crimean War ended the week prior to Miss Nightingale's letter. Cook wrote "Peace was signed at Paris on March 30, 1856; but there was still work to be done in the Crimean hospitals, and Miss Nightingale remained at Balaclava . . . till the beginning of July'' (vol. 1, p. 299).

2. Concerning Miss Nightingale's request for tincture of myrrh, one might well wonder (in this antibiotic age) why she needed it. A possible explanation is provided by the 11th edition (1911) of Encyclopaedia Britannica which states that myrrh is a gum resin obtained from various species of small trees of the order Amyridaceae genus Balsamodendron, and that "its only important application in medicine is as a carminative to lessen the griping caused by some purgatives such as aloes."

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