BDELLIUM, a fragrant gum-resin of a dark-reddish colour, bitter and pungent to the taste. It is closely allied to myrrh, and like it is produced from one or more species of Balsamodendron,— the Googul resin, or Indian bdellium, yielded by B. mukul, being considered by Dr Birdwood to be the bdellium of Scripture, and the∕3δeλλιov of Dioscorides. Bdellium is little imported into Europe, but it is extensively used in Indian pharmacy, both human and veterinary; and it is, like myrrh, employed for incense in temples. A variety of the gum-resin known as African bdellium is produced on the East African coast, but nothing is certainly known regarding its botanical source.

בדלה, occurs Gen. ii, 12, and Num. xi, 7. Interpreters seem at a loss to know what to do with this word, and have rendered it variously. Many suppose it a mineral production. The Septuagint translates in the first place, ἀνθράκα, _a carbuncle_, and in the second, κρύϛαλλον, _a crystal_. The rabbins are followed by Reland in calling it a crystal; but some, instead of _bedolah_, read _berolah_, changing the ב into ר, which are not always easily distinguished, and are often mistaken by transcribers; and so render it the _beryl_, which, say they, is the prime kind of crystal. The _bedoleh_, in Genesis, is undoubtedly some precious stone; and its colour, mentioned in Numbers, where the manna is spoken of as of the colour of _bdellium_, is explained by a reference to Exod. xvi, 14, 31, where it is likened to hoar frost, which being like little fragments of ice, may confirm the opinion that the bdellium is the beryl, perhaps that pellucid kind, called by Dr. Hill the _ellipomocrostyla_, or beryl crystal.