MANILA COPAL. 179 



According to Tschirch, 6 commercial dammar from the Malayan Archipelago is 

 very probably derived from dipterocarpous and not coniferous trees. 



As indicated by Livache, 7 Manila copal and dammar show widely different 

 physical and chemical properties and could not possibly be confused. 



IMPURITIES OF COMMERCIAL RESIN. 



The lack of uniformity of the commercial product is largely responsible 

 for the objection to Manila copal which exists among certain classes 

 of consumers. Probably in no other industry does success. more largely 

 depend upon the quality and uniformity of the ingredients' than in the 

 manufacture of varnishes. The unscientific foundation upon which the 

 art of varnish making is based has but to be realized to have appreciated 

 the importance of this question of uniformity. Where opportunity has 

 been at hand to note the primitive methods of collecting and grading 

 varnish resins which prevail in this part of the world, it is easy to 

 understand the difficulties to be overcome. 



At least four natural orders of resin-producing trees, namely, dip- 

 terocarps, conifers, Burseracece, and Guttiferce, are found widely dis- 

 tributed throughout the Malayan region, and their products are 

 simultaneously collected, graded, and shipped to European and American 

 markets. Therefore, it is not surprising that resins of widely varying 

 properties and consequently of different values for a given purpose should 

 become accidentally or intentionally mixed. 



Formerly the commerce in "Manila copal," so far as concerns the 

 Philippines, was largely in the hands of Chinese traders, who shipped 

 directly to Borneo and Singapore, where the resin was undoubtedly 

 largely mixed with dammar and similar products derived from these and 

 other Malayan sources before being graded for reshipment. 



Even at the present time, 50 per cent of the Philippine exportation 

 of this commodity reaches the consumer via Singapore. The remaining 

 50 per cent of the present local exportation is graded and sorted in 

 Manila to meet the demands of American varnish manufacturers, to 

 whom it is shipped directly ; but all collecting is done by wild hill tribes, 

 and it frequently happens that a considerable admixture of dipteroearp 

 resins is encountered by the Manila sorters. 



Hence it is seen that the varnish manufacturers must depend largely 

 upon the different systems of sorting and grading as practiced by oriental 

 shippers, and they in turn are dependent upon the indiscriminate mixing 

 of good, bad, and indifferent varieties as practiced by the native col- 

 lectors. The securing of a uniform quality or kind of varnish resin is, 

 therefore, a matter of difficulty. 



6 Die Harze und Harzbehalter. Leipzig (1906), 484. 



7 Manufacture of Varnishes. London, 2d ed. (1908). 2, 83. ■ 



