1822.] Analysis of the Chinese Varnish. 183 



11.— Analysis of the Chinese Varnish. By Mr. I. Macaire Prinsep. 



[From the Memoirs of the Society of Physics and Natural History at 

 Geneva, April, 182fi.] 



As a valuable appendix to Major Burney's account, we insert in this 

 place, the translation of a memoir by Mons. I. Macaire, on the chemi- 

 cal nature of the Chinese varnish, which, if not identical with, does 

 not much differ from that of Ava. 



" The name of varnish was formerly given in the arts, to solutions of divers 

 solid substances in appropriate liquids, susceptible of being spread easily over 

 the surface of bodies, and by evaporation of the liquid of leaving a film of solid 

 matter, more or less thick, to protect them from external influence. The essential 

 qualities of a good varnish are, the formation of a continuous and smooth coat, 

 not injurious to the texture or colour of a body; its rapidly drying and harden- 

 ing, and finally its mixing well with different coloring ingredients. To these 

 points artists have directed their attention ; but although they may have succeeded 

 well, their efforts have not yet surpassed nature, and the precious juice of which 

 Eastern Asia possesses an inexhaustible supply, is as yet superior to the best artifi- 

 cial varnish. 



The Chinese and Japanese had long employed this varnish, before we had any 

 knowledge of it in Europe. The Missionaries sent to China, in the 15th centurv, 

 were the first to give some crude notions of the nature of the coating found 

 upon most of their works of art. In the 17th century, the Jesuits Martino, Martini 

 and Kircher having spoken of it in more detail, a French hermit of the order 

 of St. Augustin, father Jamart, found means to profit by the uncertainty of 

 knowledge about Chinese varnish, and sold under this name a composition 

 which he kept secret, and which, though certainly very different from the real 

 varnish, had very much the appearance of it, and acquired general reputation in 

 commerce. Many others sought to imitate or improve upon it, with combinations 

 of balsams, gums, resins, volatile oils, &c, until at last father d'lncarville made 

 known to the world, that the famous varnish employed by the Chinese to cover 

 their furniture and utensils, was the natural product of a particular tree, which 

 they called Td-ehu, or varnish-tree. 



Those who know with what vigilant jealousy the Chinese threw obstacles in 

 the way of all intercourse with the people of Europe, will not be surprised at the 

 uncertainty of data acquired by botanists, as to the name and locality of this 

 precious tree, which has never yet been seen in Europe. Loureiro, who deserved 

 the greatest confidence, because he alone had judged with his own eyes, inserted 

 it as a new genus in his Flora Cochin-Chinensis, under the name of Augia, from 

 avyn, sple?idor. The generic characters given were, a small calix of a single piece 

 five oblong petals attached to the receptacle, a great number of stamina 

 attached to the same point, ovary terminated by a style and an obtuse drupe 

 flattened from the top, so as to resemble a lens, small, smooth, and enclosing 

 within a pulpy envelope a similar flattened nut, having but one cell. Lou- 

 reiro imagined there to be only one species, and th at one the only tree which 

 produced varnish ; he called it A. Sinensis. It grows in Cochin- China, China 



