26 
PROPERTIES OF THE GUTTA. 
a strip cut off takes light, and burns with a bright flame, emitting 
sparks, and dropping a black residuum in the manner of scaling 
wax, which in its combustion it very much resembles. But the 
great peculiarity of this substance, and that which makes it so 
eminently useful for many purposes, is the effect of boiling water 
upon it. When immersed for a few minutes in water above 150 
degrees of Faht. it becomes soft and plastic, so as to be capable 
of being moulded to any required shape or form, which it retains 
upon cooling. If a strip of it be cut off and plunged into boiling wa¬ 
ter, it contracts in size both in length and breadth. This is a very 
anomalous and remarkable phenomenon, apparently opposed to all 
the laws of heat. 
It is this plasticity when plunged into boiling water that has allowed 
of its being applied to so many useful purposes, and which first induced 
some Malays to fabricate it into whips, which were brought into Town 
and led to its farther notice. The natives have subsequently ex¬ 
tended their manufactures to buckets, basins and jugs, shoes, traces, 
vessels for cooling wine, and several other domestic uses; but the 
number of Patents lately taken out for the manufacture of the arti¬ 
cle in England proves how much attention it has already attracted, 
and how extensively useful it is likely to become. Of all the 
purposes, however, to which il may be adapted none is so valuable as 
its applicability to the practice of Surgery. Here it becomes one of 
the most useful auxiliaries to that branch of the healing art, which of 
all is the least conjectural. Its easy plasticity and power of retaining 
any shape given to it when cool, at once pointed it out as suitable for 
the manufacture of Bougies, and accordingly my Predecessor, Dr. W. 
Montgomerie, availed himself of this, made several of the above 
instruments, and recommended the use of it to the Bengal Medi¬ 
cal Board. But, like many other good hints, for want of suffi¬ 
cient enquiry, I fear it was disregarded. The practice, however, 
lias been continued by me, and I find many advantages in the 
use of this substance. It also answers very well for the lubes 
of syringes which are always getting out of order in this country 
when made of Caoutchouc. But my late experiments have given 
it a much higher value, and proved it the best and easiest applica¬ 
tion ever yet discovered in the management of fractures, combining 
ease and comfort to the Patient, and very much lessening the 
