GUTTA PEECHA. 



ABORIGINES GATHEBING GUTTA PEKCHA IN THE NATIVE FOKEST. 



GUTTA PEECHA* 



Among tte characteristics which excite our admi- 

 ration and astonishment in this era, is the rapidity 

 with which newly discovered products of nature are 

 applied and fashioned into such various uses, that 

 they, in a short time, become necessities, and we look 

 back with surprise and wonder how we have got 

 along without them. This statement is most emi- 

 nently true in the matter of gutta percha, a material 

 the virtues of which were wholly unknown to the 

 civilized world only fifteen years ago, yet at the pres- 

 ent day we find it alreadv taking its place in the 

 front rank of substances that minister to the wants 

 and appliances in the economy of the great human 

 family. With gutta percha, or by its immediate aid, 

 obstacles heretofore insurmountable have been over- 

 come; with it, by magnetism, we are enabled instant- 

 ly to send our thoughts and commands not only 

 across rivers and bays, but even portions of old 

 ocean itself, and thus are brought London and Paris 

 within a few seconds of each other; with its aid we 

 turned a branch of the Croton immediately through 

 the brackish waters of the East river, to supply the 

 city's institutions with that best of all beverages, 

 pure and wholesome water. But, to our mind, the 

 grand climax of all the uses to which has yet become 



• Pronounced pertsha nni perka. The word is purely a Malayan 

 one, gutta meaning the gum or concrete juice of a plant, and J7«r- 

 cha the particular tree from which thi3 ia procured. 



available, is its application to textile fabrics, by which 

 means it is daily becoming known among all classes 

 as one of the important features of our domestic 

 economy, and highly subservient in thousands of 

 ways to comfort, luxuiy, and general happiness. 



Gutta percha, like caoutchouc, is a carburet of 

 hydrogen, and isomeric with that substance, and pos- 

 sesses a great number of the properties which char- 

 acterise Tndian-rubber, but exhibits certain special 

 qualities which admit of its being applied to partic- 

 ular uses, to which caoutchouc is not adapted ; in 

 fact, in the principal incongruity above referred to, 

 gutta percha has proven to have all the requirements 

 that Indian-rubber needs, in the perfection of textile 

 fabrics, rendered water-proof through its aid. 



While the plants which furnish caoutchouc abound 

 in the whole of the territorial zone which extends 

 between the tropics, the Isonandra gtitta belonging 

 to the natural order Sapotacea, is the only tree which 

 yields gutta percha. It grows abundantly in nearly 

 every part of the Malayan archipelago, and to which 

 it is believed to be indigenous. The tree (called by 

 the native Malays JYiato) is from sixty to seventy 

 feet high, and three or four feet in diameter. Its fo- 

 liage is a pale green on the upper side, and covered 

 with reddish-brown hairs beneath. The sap circu- 

 lates between the bark and the wood, in vessels 

 whose course is sufficiently well marked by black lon- 

 gitudinal lines. The wood is of a soft, spongy na- 



