No. 614] 



THE USES OF INSECT GALLS 



161 



from France, Hungary, Italy, Senegal and Barbary. The 

 Chinese and Japanese galls are also sometimes mentioned 

 in recipes. The Japanese gall has been used in making 

 school and other cheap inks. 



The Massachusetts Record Commission in 1891 made a 

 Report on Record Inks and Paper in which the superiority 

 of gall-nut ink was attested. The ink made from gall- 

 nuts was said to be permanent, if properly made, and to 

 have the advantage that if the writing should fade it 

 could be repeatedly restored by a solution of nut-gall or 

 tannin. Any other coloring matter substituted in whole 

 or in part for gall-nut and iron solution impairs the qual- 

 ity of the ink. 



In 1912, Oyster in the "Spatula Ink Formulary" gives 

 as the basis of the best black writing and record inks, gall- 

 nuts. In the recipes for inks used by the United States 

 Treasury, Bank of England, the German Chancellory, 

 and the Danish Government the Aleppo gall is specified. 



Lehnen also states that nut-gall extract forms an ex- 

 cellent material for the preparation of ink, especially 

 where manufacturers can not keep large stocks of the 

 nut-gall itself. According to the 1917 annual report of 

 the Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, large quantities of 

 gall-nut extracts are imported into the United States. 

 Of course, all of it may not be used for ink manufacture. 



Tanning.— Among tanning materials this gall-nut is the 

 richest of all in the tanning principle and has been used, 

 for tanning purposes, in the preparation of hides and 

 skins, but because of its expense and its value to the tex- 

 tile colorist it has not been extensively used. Experi- 

 ments and analyses of these galls were undertaken, how- 

 ever, with a view to discovering the tanning principle 

 in vegetable matter. Pliny mentioned the preparation of 

 leather as being one of the uses of gall-nuts, Bosc re- 

 corded galls as being used in the tanning of hides and 

 Davis in 1897 spoke of them as being the richest in tannin 

 of all tanning materials, but made no further mention of 



