27 

 CHAPTER II. 



GUTTA-PEECHA. 



THIS product ranks next in importance to India-rubber, 

 and although somewhat similar in substance and chemical 

 properties, is tough and inelastic, which causes it to be 

 inapplicable for many purposes to which rubber is put. 

 Gutta-percha when exposed to the air and light absorbs 

 oxygen and changes into a brittle resinoid substance, which 

 unfits it for exposed uses. Under water, however, or in the 

 dark it does not readily change, and lasts for a considerable 

 period. 



The history of the discovery and development of gutta- 

 percha is one of great interest. It was first brought to 

 notice in 1842, at Singapore, when it attracted much atten- 

 tion, and soon 4!ound its way to Europe ; one of the first 

 uses to which it was put being for soling boots, in con- 

 sequence of its impervionsness to water, and its supposed 

 greater durability than leather. Being easily moulded by 

 heat, it was soon applied to the manufacture of pails, 

 buckets, basins, water-pipes, door-handles, knobs for drawers, 

 and a host of similar purposes. In consequence of its 

 being a non-conductor of electricity, coupled with its dura- 

 bility under water, it soon became used for coating the wires 

 of deep-sea telegraphs ; for this purpose, however, India- 

 rubber is now much more extensively used. The plant 

 was originally described by Sir W. J. Hooker, in 1847, in the 

 Journal of Botany, under the name of Isonandra Gutta, 

 which has since been sunk under that of Dichopsis Gutta, 

 Benth., by which name the true gutta-percha-yielding tree 

 is now known. It is a large tree, sixty to seventy feet high, 

 with a trunk two to tln-ee feet in diameter. At the time of 

 its discovery it was abundant at Singapore, but during the 



