1034 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[June 22, 1872. 
THE TALLOW TREE AND ITS USES. 
BY D. J. MACGOWAX, M.D. 
The botanical characters of this member of the 
Euphorbiaccce are too well known to require description; 
hut hitherto no accurate account has been published of 
its various uses. Although it has become a common tree 
in some parts of India and America, its value is appre¬ 
ciated only in China, where alone its products are 
properly elaborated. Analytical chemistry shows animal 
tallow to consist of two proximate principles—steai’ine 
and elaine. Now, what renders the fruit of this tree 
peculiarly interesting is the fact that both these prin¬ 
ciples exist in it separately in nearly a pure state. Nor 
is the tree prized merely for the stearine and elaine it 
yields, though these products constitute its chief value; 
its leaves are employed as a black dye ; its wood is hard 
and durable, and may be easily used for the blocks in 
printing Chinese books and various other articles; and, 
tinally, the refuse of the nut serves for fuel and manure. 
The StiUingia Scbifera or tallow-tree is chiefly culti- 
vated in the provinces of Iviang-se, Kiang-nau and 
Chih-kiang. In some districts near Ha^-chau the in¬ 
habitants defray all their taxes with its produce. It 
grows alike on low alluvial plains and on granite hills, 
on rich moulds on the margin of canals, and on the 
sandy sea-beach. The sandy estuary of Hang-chau 
yields little else. Some of the trees at this place are 
known to be several hundred years old, and, though 
prostrated, still send forth branches and bear fruit. 
Some are made to fall over rivulets, forming serviceable 
bridges. They are seldom planted where anything else 
can conveniently be cultivated, but generally in detached 
places, corners about houses, roads, canals, fields, etc. 
In winter, when the nuts are ripe, they are cut off 
with the twigs by a sharp bill hook attached to the 
extremity of a long pole, which is held in the hand and 
pushed upwards against the twigs, removing at the same 
time such as are fruitless. 
The harvesting accomplished, the capsules are taken 
and gently pounded in a mortar to loosen the seeds from 
their shells, from which they are separated by sifting. 
To facilitate the separation of the white sebaceous 
matter enveloping the seeds, they are steamed in tubs 
having convex, open wicker bottoms, and placed over 
cauldrons of boiling water. When thoroughly heated 
they are mashed in the mortar and then transferred to 
bamboo sieves, kept at a uniform temperature over hot 
ashes. 
As a single operation does not suffice to deprive them 
of all their tallow, the steaming and sifting is therefore 
repeated. The article thus procured becomes a solid 
mass on falling through the sieve, and, to purify it, is 
melted and then formed into cakes for the press. These 
receive their form from bamboo hoops, a foot in diameter 
and three inches deep, which are laid on the ground over 
a little straw. On being filled with the hot liquid, the 
ends of the straw underneath are drawn up and spread 
over the top, and, when of sufficient consistence, are 
placed with their rings in the press. This apparatus, 
which is of the rudest description, is constructed of two 
large beams placed horizontally so as to form a trough 
capable of containing about fifty of the rings, with their 
sebaceous cakes. At one end it is closed, and at the 
other adapted for receiving wedges, which are succes¬ 
sively driven into it by ponderous sledge hammers 
wielded by athletic men. 
The tallow oozes in a melted state into a receptacle, 
where it cools. It is again melted and poured into teibs 
smeared with mud to prevent adhesion. It is now 
marketable in masses of about eighty pounds each, hard, 
brittle, white and opaque, tasteless, and without the 
odour of animal tallow. Under high pressure it scarcely 
stains bibulous paper ; it melts at 104° Fahr. It may be 
regarded as nearly pure stearine; the slight difference is 
doubtless owing to the admixture of oil expressed from 
the seed in the process just described. The seeds yield 
about eight per cent, of tallow, which sells for about five- 
cents per pound. 
The process for pressing the oil, which is carried on at 
the same time, remains to be noticed. It is contained in 
the kernel of the nut; the sebaceous matter which lies 
between the shell and the husk having been removed in 
the manner described, the kernel and the husk covering 
it are ground between two stones, which are heated to 
prevent clogging from the sebaceous matter still adher¬ 
ing. The mass is then placed in a winnowing-machine 
precisely like those in use in western countries. The 
chaff being separated, the white oleaginous kernels are 
exposed, and, after being steamed, are placed in a mill to 
be mashed. 
This machine is formed of a circular stone groove 
twelve feet in diameter, tapering at the edge, and is 
made to revolve perpendicularly by an ox harnessed to 
the outer end of its axle, the receiver turning in a pivot 
in the centre of the machine. Under this ponderous, 
weight the seeds are reduced to a mealy state, steamed 
in tubs, formed into cakes and pressed by wedges in the 
manner before described, the process of mashing, steam¬ 
ing and pressing being likewise repeated with the 
kernels. 
The kernels yield about thirty per cent, of oil. It is* 
called tsingyu , and sells for about three cents per pound. 
It answers well for lamps, though inferior for this pur¬ 
pose to some other vegetable oils in use. It is also em¬ 
ployed for various purposes in the arts, and has a place 
in the Chinese pharmacopoeia, because of its quality of 
changing grey hair to black, and other imaginary -virtues. 
The husk which envelopes the kernels and the shell 
which encloses them, and their sebaceous covering, are 
used to feed the furnaces; scarcely any other fuel is 
necessary for this purpose. The residuary tallow cakes 
are also employed for fuel; a small quantity of it remains- 
ignited a whole day. It is in great demand for chafing- 
dishes during the cold season. 
Finally, the cakes which remain after the oil has been 
pressed out, are much valued as a manure, particularly 
for tobacco fields, the soil of which is rapidly im¬ 
poverished by that plant .—Scientific American. 
NEW MATERIAL FOR BRICKS. 
During the last few years experiments have from time 
to time been made with the view to utilize in some way 
the mounds of shale (the refuse of the coal mines) w'hich 
cover an area of several thousands of acres in South. 
Staffordshire by converting them into bi'icks. Several 
enterprising firms have already embarked in this novel 
but profitable business. When properly pulverized, the- 
shale is found to be an excellent material for the pur¬ 
pose, the bricks produced being hard and durable, resem¬ 
bling in colour the fire-clay bricks of the Stourbridge 
district, although for furnace and such like purposes- 
they are not so valuable. For ordinary building, how¬ 
ever, they are found to be of equal practical value to the 
ordinary red bricks, the only possible objection to the 
former being their colour, which is somewhat too light for 
a smoky district like South Staffordshire. This objection,, 
however, could only apply to their use for buildings of 
architectural pretensions, and such buildings in the black 
country do not predominate. There is every reason to 
believe that this method of utilizing the innumerable- 
dusky hillocks which disfigure the South Staffordshire 
landscape will gradually develope into an industry of' 
some importance. The material is to be had in any 
quantity for a mere nominal sum, and its exhaustion in 
those parts of the district where the collieries are worked, 
out would be doubtless followed by a restoration of the 
landscape to a much nearer resemblance than it now 
bears to its former beauty .—The Times. 
