166 [Assembly 



the Malayan coast; and it seems to have been ascertained that a 

 supply of the material, equal to any anticipated demand, can readily 

 be obtained. Its properties are very remarkable; the acids, fixed 

 oils, alcohol, frost, or water at a low temperature, do not affect it; 

 but it dissolves readily in boiling spirits of turpentine. At an ordi^ 

 nary temperature, it is as hard as wood. When immersed in water 

 abpve 150° Fahrenheit, it becomes soft and plastic, and may be 

 worked or pressed into any required form, which it retains without 

 coptraction in cooling, and assumes its original hardness. 



We have stated that it has been applied to a great variety of uses, 

 entirely too numerous for us to particularise ; we will, however, ad- 

 Tert to some of the most prominent. Placed in any position either 

 above or below the surface of the ground, where the temperature does 

 not exceed 100° Fahrenheit, it appears, as far as experience has 

 gone, to be unchangeable. It retains water without in the slightest 

 degree impairing its purity, and consequently forms a cheap and 

 durable pipe for conducting water for any purpose, provided the tem- 

 perature does not rise above the point before stated. The frost, 

 wiiich is so destructive and troublesome to conducting pipes made of 

 the usual materials, is sustained without injury by Gutta Percha ; ex- 

 perience having shown that it will expand without injui-y, sufficiently 

 to accommodate the expansion of water in freezing. A series of 

 experiments recently conducted at Birmingham water-works, to test 

 the strength of Gutta Percha relati\e to its capability for the convey- 

 ance of water, resulted as follows: tubes three-fourths of an inch in 

 diameter and: one-fourth of an inch thick were attached to an iron 

 main and subjected for two months to a pressure of 200 feet head of 

 w:^ter without suffering any deterioration. The tubes were then con- 

 nectejd with the hydraulic proveing pump, the regular load of which 

 is ^P poUinds in the square inch, at which the tubes were unaffectt'd. 



In the practice of surgery, it is found to answer many very valua- 

 ble purposes, particularly in the management of fractures ; so much 

 so, that it has been pronounced by gentlemen skilled in the practice, 

 "a boon to ma.'ikind, used for that purpose only.'" 



