GALLiE CHINENSES SEU JAPONIC.E. 169 



iV to ^ of an inch in thickness, translucent and horny, but brittle with 

 a smooth and shinins: fracture. It is rather smoother on the inner sur- 

 face and of lighter colour than on the outer. 



The galls when broken are generaDy found to contain a white, 

 downy-looking substance, together with the minute, dried-up bodies of 

 the killed insect.^ 



The drug as imported from Japan is usually a little smaller and 

 paler ; it mostly fetches a better price in the market. 



Microscopic Structure — The tissue of the galls is made up of thin- 

 walled, large cells irregularly traversed by small vascular bundles and 

 laticiferous vessels. The latter are mostly not branched. The paren- 

 chyme is loaded with lumps of tannic matter and starch, the latter having 

 mostly lost by the treatment with boiling water its granular appearance. 

 The epidermis of the galls is covered with little tapering hairs, consist- 

 ing each of 1-5 cells, to which is due the velvety down of the drug. 



Chemical Composition — Chinese or Japanese galls contain about 

 70 per cent, of a tannic acid, which has been first shown by Stein in 

 1849 to be identical with that derived from oak galls (see GalJfe hale- 

 penses), the so-called gallotannic or common tannic acid.' It is remark- 

 able that this substance, which is by no means widely distributed, is 

 also present in Rhus coriaria, a species indigenous in the Mediterranean 

 region. Its leaves and shoots are the well-known dyeing and tanning 

 material Suvuich. 



Stein, however, pointed out at the same time, that in Chinese galls 

 gallotannic acid is accompanied by a small amount, about 4 per cent., 

 of a difierent tannic matter. 



Commerce — At present the supplies arrive chiefly from Hankow, 

 from which gi-eat trading city the export, in 1872, was no less than 

 30,949 peculs, equal to 36,844 cwt.; 21,611 peculs, value 136,214 taels (one 

 tael about 6s.) in 1874. In 1877 all China exported not more than 

 17,515 peculs. A little is also shipped from Canton and Ningpo.' The 

 quantitj' imported from China into the United Kingdom in 1872 was 

 8621 cwts., valued at £20,098. In the China trade returns, the drag is 

 always miscalled " Nut galls," or " gallnuts." Only those called " Wu- 

 pei-tze" are the galls under examination. There are also oak-galls 

 exported from China resembling those from Western Asia. Japanese 

 galls, "Bafushi," are shipped in increasing quantities at Hiogo.^ 



Uses — The galls under notice are employed, chiefly in Germany, for 

 the manufacture of tannic acid, gallic acid, and pyrogjdloL 



^ See also Schenk, in Buchner's Reperto- Royal Society, xi (1862) 402. 



rium fur Pharm. v. (1850) 26-27, or short » Returns of Trade at the Treaty PorOtof 



abstract of that paper in the JahresbericlU CJiina, for 1872. 154; for 1874. 



of Wiggers, 1850. 48. * Matsngata, Le Japan a, FExpontion 



- See also Stenhouse, Proceedings of the universeUe (Paris, 1878) 116. 146. 



