132 EASTERN H I N D O O S T A N. 



Gum Lac. Glim Lac has been difcovered to have been produced from an 



infe(5t which is found in abundance on the mountains of the 

 back of this country. We are indebted for this ufeful difcovery 

 to Dodor William Roxburgh^ who has long been refident at 

 Samulcotta, in the CJrcar of Rajabmundry, and in 179 [ com- 

 municated to the Royal Society a moft clear account of the in- 

 fect, and its operation. The following extradl of which is bor- 

 rowed from vol. Ixxxi. p. 228, in the original attended by an 

 excellent plate. It was an infetft unknown by hinnaus^ but is 

 defcribed by Do<Slor Roxburgh, under the name of Cbermes 

 JLacca. This, like the bee, forms cells, pentagons, hexagons, 

 and irregular figures, which at Saniulcotta, in Orixa, the Doc- 

 tor's relidence, are affixed to the branches of the Mijnofa cinerea, 

 the Mimofa glauca of Koenig, and a new fpecies, called by the 

 Gentoos, Conda Corinda. The infedls are very fmall, they firft 

 appear iffuing out of the cells fix legged and winglefs, and are 

 amazingly adtive and lively ; each cell contains about a hundred. 

 The eggs they proceed from are lodged in the cells in a deep 

 red liquor: thefe are the females; the males are winged, and 

 are not in proportion in number to the females more than one 

 to five thoufand, but they are four or five times their fize. The 

 eggs and the liquor they are lodged in give a mofl beautiful 

 red. Dod:or Roxburgh acknowleges that the fubjedl: from 

 which the m.aterials of the cells is collected is as yet unknown. 

 Lac is brought over to Europe in three forms, adhering to 

 the flicks with the cells and infedls, prepared in form of cakes, 

 or in fmall grains, qv feed lac, which is the infe^^l advanced into 

 ^pupa ftate. This drug was once ufed in medicine in diforders 



of 



