294 Mr Thomas 0x1 ey on Giitla Pcrcha. 



none of its efficacy, as the case inoculated has taken. This 

 will appear the more striking when it is recollected that, to 

 preserve the vaccine virus hitherto in Singapore, even for 

 a few days, has been almost impossible ; that this settlement, 

 notwithstanding every exei'tion on the part of both private 

 and public practitioners, has been without the benefit of this 

 important prophylactic for an interval sometimes of two 

 years; and that at all times, the obtaining and transmitting 

 this desirable remedy has been a cause of trouble and difficulty 

 to all the medical officers I have ever met with in the Straits. 

 I observe in the Mechanics^ Magazine for March 1847, a 

 notice of sevei'al patents taken out for the working of this 

 article, by Mr Charles Hancock, in which an elaborate pro- 

 cess is described for cleaning the gutta, as also mention of its 

 having a disagreeable acid smell. The gutta, when pure, is 

 certainly slightly acid, that is, it will cause a very slight effer- 

 vescence when put into a solution of soda, but is unaffected by 

 liquor potassa. The smell, although peculiar, is neither 

 strong nor unpleasant, so that the article experimented upon 

 must have been exceedingly impui'e, and, possibly, derived 

 a larger portion of its acidity from the admixture and fer- 

 mentation of other vegetable substances. Again, it appears 

 to me that, if the gutta be pure, the very elaborate process 

 described as being necessary for cleaning it, is superfluous. 

 The gutta can be obtained here in a perfectly pure state by 

 simply boiling it in hot water until well softened, and then roll- 

 ing it out into thin sheets, when, as I have before said, all 

 foreign matter can be easily removed. I would recommend 

 that the manufacturers at home should offer a higher price for 

 the article if previously strained through cloth at the time of 

 being collected, when they will receive the gutta in a state 

 that will save them a vast deal more in trouble and expense 

 than the trifling aduition necessary to the original prime cost. 

 — (From a very promising Periodical printed at Singapore, 

 which we trust will be very generally encouraged. The Journal 

 of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, No. 1, July 1847, 

 p. 22.)* 



* For further particulars i'e,';;arding the Gutta pcrcha, vide Dr Maclagan's 

 Account in vol. xsxix., p. 238, of this Journal. 



