242 LEGUMINOSiE. 



mineral or vegetable nature. Schrock^ in 1677 combated the notion of 

 its mineral origin, and gave reasons for considering it a vegetable sub- 

 stance. A few years later, Cleyer,^ who had a personal knowledge of 

 China, pointed out the enormous consumption of catechu for mastication 

 in the East, — that it is imported into Japan, — that the best comes from 

 Pegu, but some also from Surat, Malabar, Bengal, and Ceylon, 



Catechu was received into the London Pharmacopoeia of 1721, but 

 was even then placed among " Terrce Qnedicamentosce." 



The wholesale price in London in 1776 was ^IQ 16s. per cwt. ; in 

 1780 £20 ; in 1793 £U 14s., from which it is easy to infer that the 

 consumption could only have been very small.^ 



Manufacture — Cutch, commonly called in India Kdt or Kut, is an 

 aqueous extract made from the wood of the tree. The process for 

 preparing it varies slightly in different districts. 



The tree is reckoned to be of proper age when its trunk is about 

 a foot in diameter. It is then cut down, and the whole of the woody 

 part, with the exception of the smaller branches and the bark, is 

 chopped into chips. Some accounts state that only the darker heart- 

 wood is thus used. The chips are then placed with water in earthen 

 jars, a series of which is arranged over a mud-built fire-place, usually 

 in the open air. Here the water is made to boil, the liquor as it 

 becomes thick and strong being decanted into another vessel, in which 

 the evaporation is continued until the extract is sufficiently inspissated, 

 when it is poured into moulds made of clay, or of leaves pinned together 

 in the shape of cups, or in some districts on to a mat covered with the 

 ashes of cow-dung, the drying in each case being completed by exposure 

 to the sun and air. The product is a dark brown extract, which is the 

 usual form in which cutch is known in Europe. 



In Kumaon in the north of India,* a slight modification of the 

 process afibrds a drug of very different appearance. Instead of evapo- 

 rating the decoction to the condition of an extract, the inspissation is 

 stopped at a certain point and the liquor allowed to cool, " coagulate," 

 and crystallize over twigs and leaves thrown into the pots for the pur- 

 pose. How this drug is finished off we do not exactly know, but we 

 are told that by this process there is obtained from each pot about 2 lb. 

 of " Kath" or catechu, of an ashy whitish appearance, which is quite in 

 accordance with the specimens we have received and of which we shall 

 speak further on. 



In Burma the manufacture and export of cutch form, next to the 

 sale of timber, the most important item of forest revenue. According 

 to a report by the Commissioner of the Prome Division, the trade returns 

 of 1869-70 show that the quantity of cutch exported from the province 

 during the year was 10,782 tons, valued at £193,602, of which nearly 

 one-half was the produce of manufactories situated in the British terri- 

 tory. Vast quantities of the wood are consumed as fuel, especially for 

 the steamers on the Irrawadi.® 



^ Ibid. Dec. i. ann. 8 (1677) 88. mens of tree, wood, and extract from Mr. 



2 Ibid. Dec. ii. ann. 4 (1685) 6. F. E. G. Matthews, of the Kumaon Iron 



3 Pegu Cutch is quoted in a London price- Works, Nynee Tal. 



current, March 1879, £1. 25. per cwt. ^ Pearson (G. F.) Report of the Adminis- 



* Madden in Journ. of Asiat. Soc. of tration of the Forest Department in the 



Bengal, xvii. part i. (1848) 565 ; also pri- several provinces under the Government of 



vate communication accompanied by speci- India, 1871-72, Calcutta, 1872, part 5. p. 22. 



I 



