Prof. Royle’s Lecture on the Great Exhibition of 1851. 173 
Printing in gold and in silver is a branch of the art which 
has been carried to great perfection in India, judging by the sev- 
eral specimens sent from very different farts of India, as well 
upon thick calico as upon fine muslin. ‘The size which is used 
I have not found mentioned, but in the Burmese territory the 
juice of a plant is used, which, no doubt, contains caoutchouc in 
a state of solution. 
Leather is another chemical art with which the Hindoos have 
long been acquainted, though it is doubtful whether they ever — 
made leather of very superior quality ; but the art is practised in 
native states where it is not likely to have been introduced by Eu- 
ropean influence, as, for instance, in Cashmere and Cutch, whence 
we have had skins dyed of different colors. But leather of very 
like to, and having some of the ies of amber. It 1s men- 
r' properties of al 
tioned in many Indian works, and is apparently alluded i by 
.) aaa 
term lacquer is applied to laying on or covering with a 
Preparation of lac; but two different processes are usually con- 
founded under this term. The one prevailing in Burma and the 
Southern parts of the Indian Peninsula was well known to Dam- 
Piet, in 1638, as he says, “The lac of Tonguin is a sort of 
