INSECT-WHITE-WAX OF CHINA. 61 



tsiouen-chou, 1 it was not until the middle of the thirteenth issa. 

 century 2 that this remarkable production came into notice in 

 China, previous to that date the wax of the bee alone having 

 been employed. It appears, however, to have been by no means 

 abundant at a period long posterior to this, as the Abbe" Grosier 

 speaks of it being reserved for the emperor and mandarins of 

 high rank. 3 DM Halde, in his Description Gftfographique, His- 

 torique, Chronologique de I' Umpire de la Chine, published in 1735, 4 

 gave an excellent account 5 of the production and cultivation of 

 this insect wax, and it has subsequently been noticed with 

 more or less accuracy by various other authors on China, all, 

 however, appearing to borrow from the native writers. 



The Chung-plh-la of the Chinese has been confounded with 

 other insect products, as with the secretion of Coccus ceriferus, 

 Fabr., called White Lac, and with the substance formed by Flata 

 limbata, F. nigricornis, and other allied insects of the family 

 Fulgoridce. The difference between it and these substances I 

 will endeavour to point out. 



Dr. Pearson, who examined the white lac collected at Madras 

 by Dr. James Anderson, 7 has recorded the following as some of 

 the characters of that substance : 8 



White lac is brittle and semi-transparent ; when strained and White lac. 

 purified, it has a greater specific gravity than water ; it fuses at 



1 Quoted by M. Stanislas Julien in his Nouveaux Renseignements sur la 

 Cire d'Arbres et sur les Insectes qui la produisent. Comptes Rendus, 13 April, 

 1840, p, 618. 



2 Du Halde says not until the dynasty of Yuen, i.e. A.D. 1280. 



3 General Description of China, translated from the French of the Abbe, 

 Grosier. Lond. 1788, vol. i., p. 441. The Abbe", however, never visited 

 China. His Description Gentrale de la Chine is an abridgment of the 

 Memoirs of the Mission to Pekin by the Jesuits. See Dibdin's Bibliographical, 

 Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour, vol. ii., p. 321. 



4 At Paris, in four volumes, folio. 8 Tome iii., p. 495. 



6 See J. 0. Westwood's Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects. 

 Lond., 1840, vol. ii., p. 429 ; also Reports by the Juries Exhibition of the 

 Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851. Lond. 1852, 8vo. p. 624. 



7 See Correspondence for the Introduction of Cochineal Insects from 

 America, the Varnish and Tallow Trees from China, the Discovery and 

 Culture of White Lac, the Culture of Red Lac, &c., by James Anderson, 

 M.D. Madras, 1791, 8vo. 



8 Observations and Experiments on a wax-like substance resembling the 

 Pe-la of the Chinese. Phil Transact., 1794, p. 383. 



