216 
ON NATURAL HISTORY. 
rigged up under a shed, are the only two indispensable ob- 
jects for this operation. The kettle is filled up with water 
and the leaves of the nauclea heated, and ebullition sus- 
tained, until the leaves are completely softened and de- 
colourized by the coction. The leaves are then lifted up 
with a fork and placed upon a piece of wood, hollowed so 
as to form a spout, and so disposed that the water with which 
the leaves are impregnated, drips little by little, and runs 
again into the kettle. 
If the decoction is not sufficiently charged with the active 
principle, new leaves are added; but if sufficiently charged, 
it is concentrated to the form of an extract. 
The point of concentration attained, the extract is run 
into a kind of cake, having raised edges, and cut into pieces 
of about the same size. If intended to be sold to the people 
of the place, and especially the Malays, who mix it with 
lime and areca nut, adding to these ingredients the betel leaf, 
which they chew constantly, it is divided into pieces of 
three centimetres wide, by fourteen long and four to five 
in thickness. 
As fast as these divisions are separated from the principal 
mass they are carried upon palm mats to be dried in the 
sun, and receive a rapid desiccation. 
GamMr, before being completely dry, is of yellow colour, 
not very deep; it offers but slight resistance, and is easily 
crushed between the fingers without adhering by the effect 
of pressure. As soon as it begins to dry, it blackens upon 
the surface and assumes an inward deep brown colour. 
The merchants of Singapore designate this substance 
under the name of catheu; terra japonica and gambir 
being more particularly given to it by the Malays: for the 
first, cachou and gambir are an absolutely identical sub- 
stance, though the product of different countries and vege- 
tables. It is true that the extract of the leaves of the nau- 
clea gambier resembles the catechu extract of the acacia C\, 
as also the gum kino ; but these three substances are far 
from being identical. * * * 
