GUTTA-PEECHA. 33 



Balata {Mvnvusops glohosa). 



A substance known as Balata, very similar to gutta- 

 percha, but with the recommendation of its being more 

 ductile, and consequently more durable, is obtained from the 

 trunk of a large forest-tree sixty to seventy or even one 

 hundred feet high, said to range from Jamaica and Trinidad 

 to Venezuela and French Guiana. It belongs to the natural 

 order Sapotacese, to which the other gutta-percha-yielding 

 trees belong, and is known to botanists as Mimusops 

 glohosa. Balata was first brought to notice in this country 

 in 1859, at the instigation of Messrs. Silver and Co., of 

 London, Dr. Van Holt, of Berbice, having previously 

 noticed the presence of the substance in the bark. 



The sample sent to Messrs. Silver by Mr. David Mel- 

 ville did not prove, upon examination, so satisfactory as was 

 anticipated, and nothing more was heard of the substance 

 till the International Exhibition in London in 18G2, where 

 specimens were exhibited in the British Guiana court, and 

 Sir William Holmes brought it into prominent notice. 

 "The result of his zealous efforts was that Messrs. Silver 

 and Co. applied for a further sample, and some of the dried 

 material was sent them. A better opinion of the merits of 

 balata seems to hav6 been derived from this experiment. 

 Some appears, also, to have been submitted about the same 

 time to the Gutta-percha Company, in London, and a 

 demand was created for it. In 1865, three years later, the 

 quantity exported was 20,000 lb. Then the trade com- 

 menced to fall off, and continued to decrease till 1874, when 

 the amount sold only realised £1 1 1 . In 1877 the demand 

 revived, but fell again the following year ; reviving again 

 the next year, and increasing up to 1884, when there was a 

 faUing off." 



In the ten years between 1875 and 1885 the India- 

 rubber, Gutta-percha, and Telegraph Works Company, at 

 Silvertown, used balata to a great extent, but since the 



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