GUTTA PERCHA. 



85 



friends, literary fame aiid exalted ! small quantities annually. The 



genius, are all as nothing to pro- 

 tect their possessor from the last 

 extremes of violence and wrong, 

 inflicted tinder judicial forms." 



GUTTA PERCHA. 



The tree yielding this useful sub- 

 stance was first observed by Mr. 

 Lobb, while engaged in a botanical 

 mission in Singapore, in the Eastern 

 Archipelago ; but gutta percha was 

 first brought into general notice in 

 1845, by Dr. Montgomery, whose 

 attention was attracted to it by 

 seeing it employed by the Malays 

 to make handles for implements. 

 He found that the material could 

 be advantageously substituted for 

 caoutchouc in the construction of 

 the parts of surgical instruments 

 hitherto made of that substance; 

 for which discovery the London 

 Society, of Arts awarded him its 

 gold medal. He ascertained from 

 the natives that the tree yielding 

 the gutta (Malayan for gum) attains 

 a height of 60 or 70 feet, and a dia- 

 meter of 3 or 4 feet, that its wood 

 is valueless as timber, but that its 

 fruit yields a concrete oil, which is 

 used for food. The tree is found in 

 Singapore, Borneo, and the adjacent 

 islands. Dr. Montgomery was as- 

 sured by Mr. Brook, the Kajah of 

 Sarawak, that in the woods of 

 Borneo it acquires a diameter of 

 6 feet. Several hundred tons of 

 gutta percha are now annually ex- 

 ported from Singapore; but there 

 is reason to apprehend, from the 

 wasteful method in which the na- 

 tives collect it, that this supply 

 must speedily be diminished, if it 

 do not altogether cease. The largest 

 quantity of juice yielded by a single 

 trunk is only 20 or 30 Ibs.; and the 

 improvident Malays will rather 

 sacrifice a tree of a hundred years' 

 growth, for the sake of obtaining 

 all its juice at once, than submit to 

 the process of tapping the trunk, 

 and allowing the gum to exude in 



Beople fell the trees, strip off the 

 ark, and collect the milky juice in 

 a cavity formed by the hollow stem 

 of the plantain leaf when, being 

 exposed to the air, it coagulates. 

 Dr. Oxley, who writes a description 

 of the tree in the Journal of the 

 Indian Archipelago, printed at the 

 Mission Press of Singapore, men- 

 tions that only a short time ago the 

 tree was tolerably abundant in the 

 island of Singapore, but that already 

 all the large timber has been felled, 

 and few, if any, other than small 

 plants are now to be found. The 

 range of its production, however, 

 appears to be considerable, it being 

 found all up the Malayan peninsula 

 as far as Penang. Numerous patents 

 have been taken out for applications 

 of gutta percha to the arts and 

 sciences. Like caoutchouc it is 

 soluble in naphtha. Hot water 

 (above 150) has a remarkable ac- 

 tion upon the substance ; contrary 

 to the usual effect of heat, the gum 

 contracts and becomes plastic, and 

 may then be made to assume any 

 form, which will be permanent at 

 an ordinary temperature. This 

 property fits it for many important 

 purposes to which caoutchouc can- 

 not be adapted. In surgical prac- 

 tice it renders gutta percha of 

 great value. Amongst the orna- 

 mental purposes to which it has 

 been successfully applied are casts 

 of medals, and other objects requir- 

 ing a smooth surface and sharp im- 

 pression. The Gutta Percha Com- 

 pany alone imported between GOO 

 and 700 tons of the material, chiefly 

 for commercial purposes, betwixt 

 the years 1844 and 1848. From 

 60 to 80 tons are said to be im- 

 ported monthly. The sonorous pro- 

 perty of gutta percha is interest- 

 ing. By speaking in a voice little 

 above a whisper, it will be heard 

 through a tube of the substance at 

 the distance of three-quarters of a 

 mile. 



