ON NATURAL HISTORY. 
217 
What seemed to me actually demonstrated, is the fact, 
that in no country is the substance known as gum kino, 
produced by the nauclea gambier; the name of gum of 
gambir, which the merchants sometimes give it, is alone 
the cause of the error into which the authors of works upon 
Materia Medica have fallen in this respect. 
The Chinese and the Malays attribute to the extract of 
the nauclea great medicinal properties: they employ it with 
decided success in cases of chronic dysentery. Under these 
debilitating climates, the astringent properties it possesses 
are eminently suited to impart to the organs a tonic action, 
which restores their functions. It is not, however, by rea- 
son of its medicinal properties, that the culture of gambir 
since several years has taken so wide an extension at Sin- 
gapore. From a time immemorial this extract has been 
employed in China for the tanning of leather; and the 
English, so prompt to seize upon the industrial processes of 
successful application in other parts of the world, have not 
been behindhand in appreciating the tanning properties of 
a substance, the power of which is not to be compared with 
any other astringent substance. With this view immense 
quantities are exported to England. * * * 
This shrub is well adapted to skirts of woods, arid places 
and rising grounds ; it requires neither manure nor any im- 
provement, contenting itself with a light soil, and exacts 
little or no labour in its cultivation. 
All the gambir plantations are at a distance from the 
town of Singapore, and in the neighbourhood of pepper 
plantations. The boiled leaves of the nauclea serve as an 
excellent manure for the branchy plant furnishing the black 
pepper, and the culture of the two can be well conducted 
together. 
Whilst sojourning a length of time amidst the Malay 
population, I naturally sought to become acquainted with 
the preparation to which these people submit their krei\ 
which pass for murderous weapons, imparting mor a 
