USES OF INDIA-RUBBER 219 



it forms an excellent cement or putty, which will keep vessels 

 air-tight for years. The famous marine glue, which is at present 

 of such extensive use in ship-building, from its wonderful powers 

 of soldering blocks of wood together, is merely a mixture of 

 gumlac and India-rubber. In one word, chemistry may 

 point to the various transformations and uses of caoutchouc as 

 to some of its proudest technical triumphs. 



The Icosandra Gutta, which furnishes the gutta percha, or 

 gutta tuban, is a native of the Eastern Archipelago and the 

 adjacent lands. A few years since this substance, now so cele- 

 brated and of such wide extended use, was totally unknown in 

 Europe, for though from time immemorial the Malays employed 

 it for making the handles of their hatchets and creeses, it was 

 only in the year 1843 that Mr. Montgomery, an English surgeon, 

 having casually become acquainted with its valuable properties, 

 sent an account of it, with samples, to the Koyal Society, for 

 which he was most justly rewarded with its gold medal. The 

 fame of the new article spread rapidly throughout the world ; 

 science and speculation seized upon it with equal eagerness ; a 

 thousand newspapers promulgated its praise ; it was immediately 

 analysed, studied, and tried in every possible way, so that it is now 

 as well known and as extensively used as if it had been in our 

 possession for centuries. 



The Icosandra Gutta is a large high tree, with a dense crown 

 of rather small dark green leaves, and a round smooth trunk. 

 The white blossoms change into a sweet fruit, containing an oily 

 substance fit for culinary use. The wood is soft, spongy, and 

 contains longitudinal cavities filled with brown stripes of gutta 

 percha. The original method of the Malays for collecting the 

 resin consisted in felling the tree, which was then placed in a 

 slanting position, so as to enable the exuding fluid to be col- 

 lected in banana leaves. This barbarous proceeding, which from 

 the enormous demand which suddenly arose for the gutta would 

 soon have brought the rapidly rising trade to a suicidal end, 

 fortunately became known before it was too late, and the resin 

 is now gathered in the same manner as caoutchouc, by making 

 incisions in the bark with a chopping knife, collecting the thin, 

 white milky fluid which exudes in large vessels, and allowing it 

 to evaporate in the sun, or over a fire. The solid residuum, 

 which is the gutta percha of commerce, is finally softened in hot 



