COMPOSITION OF GAMBOGE. 
the addition of three or four per cent, of gum; and, at all events, 
some kinds of it require such addition, as seems well known 
to the Cingalese, who, according to Mrs. Walker, when they 
use it as a pigment, sometimes add a little of the gum of the 
Feronia elephantum, or Wood-apple. In regard to the first 
of these conditions, it ought to be known, that, according to 
the only account hitherto obtained of the mode of collecting 
Gamboge in Siam, namely, the information communicated to 
Koenig by a Portuguese Priest, who said he had witnessed 
the process, this variety of the drug is actually prepared, not 
from the bark, but from the leaves, by bending down the 
branches, cutting the leaves across, and collecting the drop- 
pings. Koenig's account certainly does not seem very 
probable; yet it ought to be kept in view, and subjected to 
trial in Ceylon. The Cingalese method is to obtain it from 
the bark, sometimes by making incisions through it, and 
sometimes by shaving off portions of the outer bark as large 
as a man's palm. It seems scarcely necessary for me to 
point out how readily this crude method will lead to the in- 
troduction of woody fibre into the article, or how easily the 
method may be improved so as to exclude such impurity. 
" As to the use of Gamboge in medicine, I am satisfied that 
the Ceylon variety possesses the properties of the finest Siam 
Gamboge in full perfection. Mrs. Walker says, that in the 
Island of Ceylon it is used by the native doctors precisely 
for the same purposes with Siam Gamboge in Europe and else- 
where. I have made many experiments in my Clinical Wards in 
the Royal Infirmary, with the article sent by Mr. Ander- 
son Blair, and invariably found it at least as effectual as the 
common drug used in this country. From comparative trials, 
indeed, made in the same individuals, I am even of opinion, 
that Ceylon Gamboge is the more powerful of the two, while 
it is equally safe and free from any accessory unpleasant 
operation. 
" In conclusion, then, I may venture to express my firm 
persuasion, that Europe need not be indebted to Siam alone for 
its Gamboge; and that, with a little enterprise and due atten- 
