GAMBIER. 337 



with the cultivation of gambier that of pepper, for which the boiled 

 leaves of the gambier form an excellent manure. 



The gambier plants are allowed to grow 8 to 10 feet high, and as their 

 foliage is always in season, each plant is stripped 3 or 4* times in the 

 year. The apparatus and all that belongs to the manufacture of the 

 extract are of the most primitive description.^ A shallow cast-iron pan 

 about 3 feet across is built into an earthen fireplace. Water is poured 

 into the pan, a fire is kindled, and the leaves and young shoots, freshly 

 plucked, are scattered in, and boiled for about an hour. At the end of 

 this time they are thrown on to a capacious sloping trough, the lower 

 end of which projects into the pan, and squeezed with the hand so that 

 the absorbed liquor may run back into the boiler. The decoction is then 

 evaporated to the consistence of a thin syrup, and baled out into buckets. 

 When sufiiciently cool it is subjected to a curious treatment: — instead 

 of simply stirring it round, the workman pushes a stick of soft wood in 

 a sloping direction into each bucket; and placing two such buckets 

 before him, he works a stick up and down in each. The liquid thickens 

 round the stick, and the thickened portion being constantly rubbed off, 

 while at the same the whole is in motion, it gradually sets into a mass, 

 a result which the workman affirms would never be produced by simple 

 stirring round. Though we are not prepared to concur in the work- 

 man's opinion, it is reasonable to suppose that his manner of treating 

 the liquor favours the crystallization of the catechin in a more concrete 

 form than it might otherwise assume. The thickened mass, which is 

 said by another writer to resemble soft yellowish clay, is now placed in 

 shallow square boxes, and when somewhat hardened is cut into cubes 

 and dried in the shade. The leaves are boiled a second time, and 

 finally washed in water, which water is saved for another operation. 



From informations obtained in 1878 it would appear that now the 

 prevailing part of gambier is made by means of pressure into blocks. 



A plantation with five labourers contains on an average 70,000 to 

 80,000 shrubs, and yields 40 to 50 catties (1 catty = 1^ lb. = 604.-8 

 grammes) of gambier daily. 



Description — Gambier is an earthy-looking substance of light 

 brown hue, consisting of cubes about an inch each side, more or less 

 agglutinated, or it is in the form of entirely compact masses. The 

 cubes are externally of a reddish brown and compact, internally of a 

 pale cinnamon hue, dry, porous, friable, devoid of odour, but with a 

 bitterish astringent taste, becoming subsequently sweetish. Under the 

 microscope, the cubes of gambier are seen to consist of very small 

 aoicular crystals. 



Chemical Composition — In a chemical point of view, gambier 

 agrees with cutch, especially with the pale variety made in Northern 

 India (p. 242). Both substances consist mainly of Catechi7i,^ which may 

 be obtained in the hydrated state as slender colourless needles, by 

 exhausting gambier with cold water, and crystallizing the residue from 

 8 or 4 parts of hot water, which on cooling deposits nearly all the 

 catechin. Ferric chloride strikes with the solution of catechin, even 



^ We borrow the following acconnt, which -Gautier (1877) suggests that it is not 



is the best we have met with, from Jagor's identical with catechin from Acacia 



Singapore, Malacca, undJava,Ber\m,l8G6. Catechin (p. 244). 

 64. 



