GUM KUTEERA. JQJ 



any penknife I ever had. I mentioned this circumftance foon 

 after to the cutler who made the knife. He faid that he had 

 no doubt of the truth of my obfervation, as he could harden 

 and temper a large blade better than a fmall one ; becaufe 

 there is more difficulty in afcertaining the proper degree of 

 heat in the latter than in the former. 



And it may perhaps be a mechanical truth, that a ftrong And perhaps the 

 knife will overcome the refiftance of a hard quill with lefs ex. ^^J"^'"^ '^' 

 ertion of the hand than a weak one, The blade of the knife 

 that I ufe, and which gave rife to thefe obfervations, is four 

 inches in length and half an inch in breadth. 



It may perhaps be fuppofed that a knife of thefe dimenfions Itmay with con- 

 is improperly conftruded for cutting the fides of a pen into a van'tacrbTufed" 

 curve, but it will be found, on trial, that the breadth of the as a penknife. 

 blade is no impediment, for it is the form of its edge which 

 it receives by whetting, that renders a broad blade quite as 

 manageable as a narrow one. 



I am, SIR, 



A conftant Reader of your 

 Truly valuable Journal, 

 March 22, 1804. W. 



XVI. 



Comtnunication refpeSiing an Article fent from the Eaji Indies, 

 under tlie Namq of Gum Kuteera, and of zvhich a large Quan" 

 tity has been lately imported into this Kingdom. By Mr. 

 John CowiE *. 



To Mr. TAYLOR. 

 SIR, 



A HERE is a gum produced in feveral parts of Oude and Gum refembllng 

 the adjacent provinces, fo nearly refembling gum tragacanth, §• tragacanth, 

 as to have been taken for it by many ; and large quantities of 

 it, of late years, have been imported into Europe, under this 

 miftaken opinion. But it is now well afcertained, that this gum 

 (which in the country language is called kuteera) is the pro- 

 duce of a particular tree, of quite a different fpecies from the 



* Society of Arts, Vol. XXI. 



thorny 



