786 PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 



Africa and to some extent in Egypt. That the industry is an important 

 one in Indo-China (Tonkin, etc.) is shown by the fact that a detailed 

 account of cultivation, refinement and manufacture of lac is given in 

 BnUetin Econoniique de L'Indo Chine, No. 116, November-December 

 1915, pp. 872-944. Here the methods of refinement are very much 

 like those adopted in this country, excepting that a wider use is made 

 of the essences obtained fi'om the bye-products of lac. The writer in 

 the bulletin quoted above has summarized the industry in Tonkin and 

 has largely drawn upon the Lac Bulletin issued by me in 1912. The 

 processes of refinement in that country appear to be the same as those 

 adopted in this country and it is rather strange to see that the methods 

 of manufacturing shellac adopted in that country are as antiquated as- 

 those adopted in this country and seem to be a copy of those adopted 

 ill this country from times remote. 



Besides the lac produced in India, there is another kind of resin-, 

 produced in Madagascar by Gascardia tnadagascarensis, Targioni- 

 Tozzetti (Tar. Tozzetti, p. 425, 1894). This fact was first brought into- 

 prominence by M. A. Gascard in 1893 {Contribution a Vetude des Gommes' 

 Laques des hides et de Madagascar, D'edit. Sci. Paris, also Bidl. Soc. 

 Ent. Italy, Vol. XXVI, pp. 457-464, 1894). But the msect producing- 

 this differs considerably fiom that producing lac in structural 

 details. 



Lac was first sought after when the prices of cochmeal rose high. 

 As is known cochineal is used for dyeing silk and even now, when the 

 prices of the colouring matter are very high, ij; is still used for giving 

 those delicate shades to silk which cannot be done with synthetic dyes. 

 In the beginning, lac met with the same fate as tea, where the decoction 

 was throwTi away and the boiled leaves were ii.sed for chewing. In this 

 case the resin was not utilized commercially and was considered a waste 

 product ill much the same hght as lac dye has come to be considered 

 now-a-days. From 1814 lac-dye began to be exported in increasing 

 quantities. The maximum was reached in the years 1822, 1824 and 

 1826 when 760,729 lb. were exported. The exports began to decline 

 rapidly from 1882-1883 until it became practically extinct m 1896-1897.- 

 In 1900 the total quantity of lac-dye exported was only a ton. Corre- 

 sponding to this decrease, the resin in the form of shellac has been rising 

 continuously. The figures for the twelve years 1905-1916 have been 

 already given above. 



From those figures it will be seen that over 591,702 lb. of shellac- 

 worth 3:25,43,610 rupees were exported from the port of Calcutta only. 

 Had such figures been available for the other Indian ports, Bombay, 

 Mp.dras and Karachi, it would be safe to reckon the total production. 



