THE GUTTA PERCH A. 51 



It has been found by Dr. Oxley to be of the greatest 

 Value in surgery, particularly as splints for fractured 

 limbs. Many interesting particulars connected with it 

 will be found in the original paper from which these 

 remarks are extracted, and which will be found in the 

 first or July number of a little but highly interesting 

 work, published monthly at a trifling expense, under 

 the superintendence of Mr. Logan of Singapore. It is 

 entitled the ' Journal of the Indian Archipelago, and 

 Eastern Asia,' and the numbers already published 

 contain some valuable and new information on the in- 

 teresting countries of which it treats. 



As has been stated above, the gutta percha has 

 been found in Borneo, and the same substance is said 

 by the natives, who know at present nothing of the 

 manner of collecting it, or of its uses, and who call 

 it by a different name, ' gutta niato,' to be produced 

 by several different trees. The same name is men- 

 tioned by Sir Stamford Raffles, in his ' History of 

 Java/ (vol. i. page 42, 4to edition), but he con- 

 founds it with the miniak kawon, or tankawan, already 

 described ; but the name being the same as that used 

 by the people of Borneo, it is very likely that both the 

 trees are found in Java. The gutta percha has been re- 

 cently referred by Sir W. Hooker to the order Sapo- 

 tacea3, and to Dr. Wight's new genus, Isonandra, under 

 the name of Isonandra gutta. 



Another substance, similar in all respects to caout- 

 chouc, might be obtained in quantities in Borneo, as 

 well as in many other of the islands and on the penin- 

 sula : it is the produce of a climbing plant of the genus 



E 2 



