233 
obtained, because, on finding that the forests were being denuded of 
gutta trees through the destructive qnse. adopted in procuring the 
sap, a stop was put for a time to its collectio 
9. A syndicate has been formed here to 54 out the process and to 
establish a factory, and, so far as I can judge, there is every prospect 
of a very valuable industry and most э аА concern being in their 
hands. 
ve, &с. 
The Right H (Signed). Секси, C. SMITH. 
The Lord Kantio, G.C.M.G., 
&c. &c. &c. 
Colonial Office. 
Royat GARDENS, Krew, to COLONIAL OFFICE. 
Sm, Royal Gardens, Kew, August 24, 1891. 
I mave the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
August 19, Tire a copy of a Despatch from the Governor of the 
Straits Settlements on a new process for extracting Gutta Percha. 
t has long been known that both in the case ‘of India Rubber and 
of Gutta Percha the ordinary methods in use only yielded a peat of 
the milk contained in the tree or vine operated upon. the 
method of tapping w was resorted to this was rather ао ‘than 
otherwise, as the tree was not epi ge by the process, and could at 
Pu be repeatedly tapped aga 
Where, ate fos the tree was felled in order to drain it of its 
milk, as appears to be the case with Gutta Percha yielding trees, there 
сай be no doubt that the residual loss was very considerable, and the 
grin few. irrecoverable waste very great. 
4 s was carefully pointed out by Mr. Leonard Wray, junior, the 
Curator of the Perak State Museum, in a very important re 
sented to Sir Hugh Low, G.C.M.G., then Her Britannic Majesty’s 
i me :— The bark 
* on the upper part of the trunk and on the branches . . . is just as 
* rich in Gutta as the lower portion of the жегш Even the leaves 
“ contain a notable proportion.” Не estimated ro vag wet bark 
contains fully 5'7 per cent. of. ‘Gutta Percha, an * by simply 
* pounding or rasping and boiling the bark, ену P pe Gutta which 
* it contained may be extracted." With these facts in view Mr. Wray 
sent to Kew at the end of 1885 a quantity of the dried bark in e 
с 
tracted in ge country. The investigation was undertaken, as a 
informed you in my letter of August 6, 1886, by the India Rubber, 
Gutta Percha, xd Telegraph Works Company, Limited. I may quote 
the result :—'* After a very careful study of the question they find Ee 
* though a large proportion of the Gutta Percha is undoubtedly 
el + coverable, it is so intermixed with a brittle resin that the resulti »^ 
roduet is commercially valueless." 
. This result is, however, not incompatible with the more favour- 
able results obtained by M. Eugene Sérullas. It is quite possible that 
by acting upon um material the Gutta Percha may be obtained free 
m deterioratio 
6. The idea, 8 T of obtaining. the residual Gutta is not, 
altogether, a new one. The same rwn presented itself in erara 
in the case of Gum Balata. The late Sir William Holmes тем P Ç 
