2lA2 Dr Hancock on Resinous and Balsamic 



pulverizable, softening with heat (not inflammable however), 

 and no part of the powder is soluble in spirit or water, cold or 

 hot, nor in the strong vegetable and mineral acids or alkalies, 

 &c. thus differing in chemical affinity from the resins, from 

 cahuchi gum, gum resins, &c. 



The milky fluid of ducali is, as already said, instantly coa- 

 gulated to a hard mass by addition of alcohol, although heat 

 has no such affect upon it ; thus in one instance appearing to 

 be referable to albumen, but not in the other ; and it is sin- 

 gular, that though from its insolubility in this menstruum, one 

 would expect to find the alcoholic coagulum altogether differ- 

 ing from a resin, yet like resins it is liquified by heat, burn- 

 ing like them, and soluble also in oils. It therefore seems to 

 be allied more in its nature to wax than to any other of the 

 vegetable proximate principles. — It would probably serve for 

 candles after being washed with spirit. 



The milk is much employed by the Indians as a dressing 

 for yaws and other foul sores. 



Caoutchuc or Cahuchi tree ; — in ArowaJc, Haatie ; — in Aca- 

 wai, Kindh ; — in Caribe, Pome. 



It grows abundantly on the Sipperuni ; and other branches 

 of the Essequebo, and along the Tapacoma. 



This tree is the Siphonia elastica of botanists. — The flowers 

 are small and so very scarce and caducous, that it is difficult 

 to procure a dried specimen with them attached. The fruit 

 has three seeds covered with a pulpy capsule, which gives it 

 precisely the form of an apple. — On showing one of them to 

 a Carib and asking its name, he answered me almost in Latin 

 " Pomae," with a short sound of the penultima. It is the 

 tree Siphonia^ however, which they call by this name, and 

 not the fruit. 



The Macosis make balls of it as toys for their children to 

 play with ; and, so elastic are they that they will rebound se- 

 veral times between the ceiling and floor of a room, when thrown 

 with some force. 



Large quantities of the caoutchuc might be found at the 

 Essequebo ; but I have not learnt at what season it flows most 

 abundantly. 



