— 104 — 



alone, since the physical properties such a drying power, transparency 

 and lustre must of course be taken into consideration. 



Lac obtained from branches being rich in water content and poor 

 in urushiol with a heavy admixture of gummy and nitrogenous substances, 

 is naturally regarded as an inferior product. (Since the nitrogenous 

 substance is somewhat soluble in hot water, it inevitably admixed with 

 the gummy substance in smaller quantity. The transparency and the 

 lustre of lac should be given great weight in grading lac). 



(B) Physical Properties of Lac. 



Every sample was filtered through the paper so called "Yoshino- 

 gami " and the liquid so obtained, was put with a brush on panes of glass 

 in uniform thin layers. The coated panes were carefully placed in shelves 

 of box called " Furo " to be dried. The inside of the box is moistened 

 and a wet cloth is placed on the bottom as well as to keep the inside 

 moist; the panes so coated were examined occasionally to ascertain the 

 time needed for drying. Indeed, some of them began to harden after 2 

 hours and entirely hardened in 3 to 4 hours ; others remained still undried 

 even after 30-40 hours, and others varied in time required between these 

 limits. 



us 

 o 



o ™ 

 ■ -3 p. 



O Pi 



S5 





Early 

 (Hatsu) 



Prime 

 (Sakari) 



Fin al 

 (Sue) 



Short 

 (Urame) 



Tail 

 (Tome) 



Ordi- 

 nary 



Prime ?„^£- Prime ^''^^- 



nary 



nary 



Ordi- 

 nary 



D 



Branches 

 (Seshime) 



Small trees 



Ear- 

 ly 



Prime 



Prime Or^^- Prime Or^^- Prime |Ordi- 



D 



E 



D 



B 



Prime 



Though the nitrogenous substance' accelerates the drying of urushiol, 

 it seems to be very objectionable when it exists in a large quantity. In 

 general, lac containing a large quantity of nitrogenous substance is like- 

 wise rich in gummy substance and poor in drying power. 



Transparency and Lustre:— The quality of lac can never be fully 

 judged by the results of analysis alone; for it depends greatly on the 

 two physical properties. A coating on glass readily reveals the degree of 



