478 



GUTHRIE 



GUTTA-PERCHA 



.movement. A Ragged School was founded on the 

 ' Castle Hill, in 1887 removed to Liberton. He also 

 earnestly exerted himself, in many ways, in oppo- 

 sition to intemperance and other prevailing vices, 

 and in favour of national and compulsory educa- 

 tion. He became a total abstainer in 1847 through 

 a conversation with an Irish car-driver. Guthrie 

 possessed great rhetorical talent ; and his style was 

 remarkable for the abundance and variety of the 

 illustrations he used. Lord Cockburn attributed 

 Guthrie's remarkable influence over his audience to 

 the possession of ' passion and compassion. ' Few 

 public speakers have ever blended solemnity and 

 deep pathos so intimately with the humorous, his 

 tendency to which, although never in the pulpit, 

 has more frequently than anything else been pointed 

 out as his fault. Guthrie always displayed a gener- 

 ous sympathy with all that tends to progress or 

 improvement of any kind. He was moderator of 

 the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scot- 

 land in May 1862, and one of the vice-presidents of 

 the Evangelical Alliance. He was presented with 

 5000 in 1865 as a token of public appreciation. 

 He acted as editor of the Sunday Magazine from 

 its establishment in 1864, in which year he retired 

 from his regular ministrations. He died 24th 

 February 1873. Guthrie's most important pub- 

 lished works are The Gospel in EzeJciel (1855); 

 The Way to Life (1862); A Plea for Drunkards 

 and against Drunkenness (1850); A Plea for 

 Ragged Schools, a pamphlet (1847), followed by 

 a second and a third plea, the latter under 

 the title of Seed-time and Harvest of Ragged 

 Schools (1862); The City: its Sins and Sorrows 

 (1857); Man and the Gospel (1865); Angels' Song 

 (1865); Parables (1866); Studies of Character 

 (1868); Sundays Abroad (1871). See his Auto- 

 biography and Memoir, edited by his sons (2 vols. 

 1874-75). 



Gllthrie, WILLIAM, a political, historical, and 

 miscellaneous writer, was born at Brechin, in For- 

 farshire, in 1708, and educated at King's College, 

 Aberdeen. At an early period he removed to 

 London, where he worked hard for forty years as 

 a man of letters. He died in March 1770. Among 

 his various works are a History of England (3 vols. 

 1744-50), and A Historical ana Geographical Gram- 

 mar (1770; 24th ed. 1827), a useful manual of in- 

 formation, which long enjoyed immense popularity. 



4. n I fi i inn. See ALFRED THE GREAT. 



Guts ninths, JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH, 

 a German teacher, was born at Quedlinburg, in 

 Prussian Saxony, 9th August 1759, studied at 

 Halle, and from 1785 to 1837 taught gymnastics and 



eography in Salzmann's scholastic institution at 

 chnepfenthal. He died 21st May 1839. He is 

 specially remembered for having introduced gym- 

 nastics as a branch of education in German schools. 

 On this subject and on geography he wrote numer- 

 ous text-books, as Gymnastikfur die Jugend ( 1793) 

 and Handbuch der Geographic ( 1810 ) ; he also edited 

 Bibliothekfur Pddagogik ( 1800-20) and, along with 

 Jacol)i,-Deutsches Land und deutsches Volk (]82Q- 

 32). See his life by Wassmannsdorf (Heidelb. 

 1884). 



Gutta-percha, a substance in many respects 

 similar to caoutchouc, is the dried milky juice of 

 various trees of the order Sapotacese ; the chief is 

 apparently that called by Hooker Isonandra Gutta, 

 and by Bentley and Trimen Dichopsis Gutta. The 

 tree, which is found in the peninsula of Malacca 

 and the Malayan Archipelago, is very large, attain- 

 ing a height of 70 feet ; the trunk is sometimes 

 3 or even 4 feet in diameter, although it is of 

 little use as a tirrber-tree, the wood being spongy. 

 The leaves are alternate, on long stalks, obovate- 

 oblong, entire, somewhat leathery, green above, and 



of a golden colour beneath. The flowers are in 

 little tufts in the axils of the leaves, small, each on 

 a distinct stalk, the corolla having a short tube 

 and six elliptical segments ; they have twelve 

 stamens and one pistil. The name, gutta-percha 

 (gdtta pdrcha, or gittah pertja), is Malay. There 

 are two or three kinds of gutta-percha known in 

 commerce, and it is more than probable these are 



Gutta-percha (Isonandra (Dichopsis) Gutta) : 

 a, a flower ; b, fruit. 



yielded by different species. That from Singapore 

 is esteemed the best, and is distinguished by the 

 Malay traders as Gutta Taban or Tuban ; that of 

 Borneo is of less value this is called Gutta Percha 

 by the traders, and has given the general name to 

 all ; and another kind goes by the name of Gutta 

 Girek. The first two are those generally known in 

 our markets. The former mode of obtaining the 

 gutta-percha was a most destructive one. The 

 finest trees were selected and cut down, and 

 the bark stripped off; between the wood and 

 bark a milky juice was found, which was scraped 

 up into little troughs made of plantain leaves. 

 Now the plan of tapping the living trees is 

 employed. The juice soon coagulates, or may be 

 boiled, and is then kneaded by hand into oblong 

 masses a foot in length. 



Gutta-percha was known in Europe long before 

 its peculiar characteristics and uses were known. 

 It was brought home at various times by voyagers, 

 in the forms of drinking-bowls and native shoes ; 

 and was thought by some to be a species of 

 india-rubber, while others asserted it was a 

 kind of wood, which they named mazer-wood. 

 But for its introduction in 1843 we are indebted 

 chiefly to Dr William Montgomerie of the Indian 

 Medical Service, who was rewarded with the gold 

 medal of the Society of Arts. He first noticed 

 that the Malays used it for making handles 

 to their knives, &c., and it immediately occurred 

 to him that it might be of great use in a variety of 

 ways, especially in making handles for surgical 

 instruments, the hand being able to get a light but 

 firm graep of them. Soon the importation of gutta- 

 percha increased amazingly; in 1860 it exceeded 

 16,000 cwt. In 1864, 1865, 1870, and 1871 the 

 imports varied from 25,966 cwt. to 35,636 cwt. ; 

 in 1876-83, from 21,100 cwt. to 66,000 cwt. 

 Down to 1888 these imports declined very much, 

 as in that year they only reached 22,500 cwt., 

 at an average price of 162 shillings per cwt. In 

 1889, however, they showed an upward tendency 

 both in quantity and value, the total imports from 

 January to October 1889 being 38,940 cwt., and the 

 average price 241 shillings per cwt. By far the 



