208 SOME REMARKS UPON SHELLAC. 



I cannot tell the relative proportions of orange, garnet, or liver coloured. 

 Of course, all descriptions are included. There are vessels, however, now 

 afloat and expected to reach England in due course, having on board no 

 less than 3,192 chests and 363 bags of shellac, which, doubtless, if they do 

 not sink to the bottom of the sea, ought to raise our home stocks, and tend 

 to reduce prices ; but we are told, on the other hand, that there is a large 

 demand for the American and foreign market, while all our drug and other 

 merchants at home are so bare of stock, that they will be ready to buy 

 whenever the price moderates. 



I dare say it must have occurred to more than one to inquire why, with 

 such extravagant prices, some other substance or compound has never been 

 thought of and introduced instead of shellac. This has been done, but 

 most unsuccessfully. When in London, about eight months ago, I was 

 shown an article which a company just established were about to make and 

 sell instead of shellac. The price was £3 per cwt. cheaper, and those 

 about to engage in its manufacture were sanguine as to the ultimate results. 

 I was told, whenever it was ready to send out in quantity, a sample would 

 be sent. Accordingly, about a month afterwards, a parcel arrived, regard- 

 ing which my opinion was requested. After carefully trying the article I 

 gave a report condemnatory of its use in any of the arts or manufactures in 

 which the regular lac had hitherto been used. Although I was little 

 thanked for this opinion at the time, I do not think the stuff I now show 

 continued long to be made. Indeed, it really appears to be little else than 

 a mixture of shellac and some aloetic resin, very probable Cape aloes. Be 

 that as it may, I am satisfied from experiment that it could never come into 

 competition with even inferior kinds of shellac. 



In closing these few remarks, I may be allowed to express a hope, that 

 lac has seen its highest price, and that during 1861 it will be considerably 

 reduced. I am very unwilling to believe, that native supplies have really 

 become extinct ; while the enormous comparative prices still existing, cannot 

 but tend to increase that activity and energy in searching for fresh supplies, 

 which will, I trust, result in sending more raw material to the native lac 

 manufactories, and thus, by increasing stocks at home, gradually reduce the 

 market price to something more moderate, and approximating the steady 

 prices at which shellac has until lately stood on the price list. 



[Lac is a staple produce of the wild tract of country to the eastward of the 

 Godavery river. Within a round of twenty miles of Mahadcopore alone, 

 some thousands of rupees' worth is yearly produced. By making advances 

 to the Goands, a correspondent says he has collected large quantities of it 

 for the Hyderabad market, and a great deal more for the same place was 

 carried away by others. If it was an object to encourage the supply of this 

 article, which grows wild in every part of the vast tract, without any arti- 

 ficial aid whatever, very considerable quantities might be collected annually. 

 The native process of preparing it is very crude, and, in consequence, per- 

 haps much of its value is deteriorated. Under European superintendence 

 that would be soon rectified. The lac insect, according to Crawfurd, 



