August 1, 1915.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



cietj of Arts, including the making of belting and water-pipe, 

 confirmed this opinion; and on June 2, 1845, the socii tj justly 

 awarded to Dr Montgomerie a gold medal for his discovery 

 and suggestion as to the uses oi gutta percha. It is here that 

 controversj begins. The society which received and gave to 

 the world the knowledge of gntta percha has been criticize 

 awarding the honor to the man who furnished it with the 

 information and material, instead of to another man who 



sent the substance merely as a curiositj to another society, 

 which received it in the spirit in which it was sent. So far 

 as is known. Dr. Montgomerie was the first white man who 

 made us< oi gutta percha as a material for manufacture; the 

 first to suggest to others its use: the first to give to the world 

 a published account of its origin and iis actual and possible 

 utility: the one who indisputably brought it to the attention 

 of the nun who first engaged in the commercial production 



of its manufactures. Had l)r. D'Almeida sent his specimens 



to the Society of Arts and Dr. Mont- 

 gomerie his to the Royal Asiatic So- 

 ciety, the medal might have been 

 differently awarded, but the fact would 

 have remained that Dr. Montgomerie 

 was still the first to utilize and publish 

 ih. discovery, tn any event, however, 

 the seed sown by Dr. D'Almeida Fell 

 on absolutely sterile soil while thai of 

 Dr. Montgomerie took root and grew. 

 The man who bets on the wrong horse 

 is entitled to sympathy, but not to the 

 stakes. And aside from the fact that 

 the specimens of Dr. D'Almeida were 

 exactly in a class with those of the 

 Tradescants, unquestionable priority 



must be awarded to Dr. Montgomerie 

 and all according honor For having in- 

 troduced gutta percha to the world of 

 science and the useful arts. 



The etymology of gutta percha is 

 obscure and probably will remain so 

 to the end of time. That it is from 

 the Malay language is undoubted, also 

 that "gutta" means the gummy exuda- 

 tion from any tree. But here the 

 trouble begins. Nobody has agreed 



as to what "percha" means. Every explanation which has 

 been hopefully brought forward has fallen to the ground 

 when examined by men with a thorough knowledge of the 

 Mala} language \s to "gntta tahan" and "lalian meerah," it 

 appears that "tahan'' does not mean simply "tree," but a gutta- 

 percha producing tree. In Sumatra the equivalent term is 

 "balam," while in the Philippines it is "nato." "Meerah." it is 

 on all hands agreed, means "red." so that "gutta tali.m 

 meerah" is "gutta" from the red "tahan." According to Mr. 

 Curtis, sometime superintendent of the Penang Botanic 

 Gardens, the natives give the name "tahan percha" to Palaquium 

 maingasi, a tree similar in appearance to Palaquium gutta, but 

 furnishing a quite worthless gum. This might indicate that 

 the Malay informants of Dr. Montgomerie were themselves 

 misled. One native may have pointed out a tree and said 

 that this was the tree which furnished the handle of his 

 parang. Another, knowing or believing that this was a 

 "percha" tree, may have declared that the substance wa 

 "gutta percha." But whatever the mistakes or the accuracy 

 of these little brown brothers of seventy years ago. the name 

 gutta percha will endure as long as the world stands, i lur 

 language is full of names once misnomers, but they have a 

 meaning now and are not going to be changed. In regard 

 to the spelling "gettah," occasionally affected, it need only he 

 pointed out that spelling the words of barbarous people is 



John Tradescant, Jr. 



always a difficult matter. Elisions are common and their 

 \owel pronunciations are varied ami obscure, more often 

 than otherwise merelj a neutral sound which might rcpr. 

 the shun form ol any of the five vowels The same is true 



ni uneducated or careless speakers in every country. In the 

 case oi the Malays and others using the Arabic alphabet, 

 wlinli represents only consonant sounds, the possession of a 

 written language does nol help in fix the speech, so far as 



\ ow el sounds a i - oncei ned. 



The "tahan meerah or red tahan, Palaquium ets its 



nami almost certainly from the color oi" the I. ark. a warm, 

 i eil brown which is constantly maintained by tin- outer bark 

 falling away in small chips. The under side of the leaves, the 

 onlj side si in. In a person walking under the tree, has a 

 golden or coppery red sheen. The young twigs and even tin 

 fruit a i.l with reddish brown hairs. The inner bark 



is decidedly lid. the wood is reddish brown and the gutta 

 is reddish. No wonder the natives 

 called it tahan "meerah." The flowers 

 are in sixes — six sepals, six di 

 of the corolla, twelve stamens in two 

 series of six, and six pistils. ' m these, 

 all the seeds hut one or two are abor- 

 tive, the result being a drupe-like fruit 



ig as a g i i ed plum and with 



a swe.i and eatable pulp which, how- 

 ever, according to Mr. Wray, "has a 

 disagreeable flavor of gntta percha." 

 This flavor does not bother the native 

 fruit-bats, which are very fond of the 

 fruit. These bats are verv pugnacious 

 and egoistic individuals and one of 

 them cannot hear to see another eat- 

 ing the fruit he would like to eat him- 

 self. So, when one has secured a 

 fruit and does not wish his coat punc- 

 tured by one of his brothers, he de- 

 taches it from tin- tree and Hies to 

 another tree of a different species 

 standing anywhere from a few yards 

 to a quarter of a mile away. There he 

 eats the pulp and dis, a seeds 



which arc too large and hard for his 

 purposes. It is this process which has 

 scattered the trees throughout the forests of the districts to 

 which they are native. The seeds are as large as almond 

 kernels ami contain a valuable oil which is solid up to a tem- 

 pi atun i i 90 degrei Fahr., and is used by the native 

 culinary purposes. ' ! i course thi seeds of the he- 

 are far more valuable for planting than for butter purposes 

 just now. but when, in the distant but certain future, the 

 supply of plantation gutta percha approximates the com- 

 mercial den. amis, the oil from the seeds is likely to pre 

 v aluable by-pn idm t 



Of course it is its peculiar and wonderful product which 

 gives the tree its interest above all others of its family. Fruits, 

 oils, limbers, are all needed in our economy, but with. 

 percha there would have been no submarine cables and many 

 .m important scientific experiment never would have been 

 made. While everybody knows that gutta percha comes 

 from the "juice," there are still too many who think that 

 it is the sap of a tree. Just how a thick and viscous fluid 

 could perform the functions of a sap has certainly never oc- 

 curred to them. Of course, the exudation from which gutta 

 percha is derived is a latex or milk, which is not, as 

 said, the English translation of the Latin-derived name, 

 meaning simply juice. Though it is true that the latex of most 

 plants is white like milk, a few have yellow or even red latex. 

 It is said that in all cases it is colorless while in the latex cells, 



