VEGETABLE KINGDOM—GUM AND RESIN SERIES.
71
Class IV.]
To lion. Lieut.-Colonel Buttkrwortii, Governor ofPrince of Wales* Island and Singapore , for a collection ’of raw produce from Singapore and the Straits (876-890).
To Major F. Jenkins, Chairman of the AssamCommittee, for the collection of the raw produce ofAssam .
To the Agricultural Society of tiie Cape of GoodHope , for the collection of the raw produce of thatcolony (No. 1 to 55, pp. 950, 952).
To* the President of the Montreal Committee,for the collection of the timber and other woods ofCanada (80, pp. 963, 964).
To the Koval Agricultural and Commercial So-ciety of British Guiana, for the collection of the rawproduce of that colony (977).
To Ilis Excellency Lord Harris, Governor of Trini-dad, for the collection of the raw produce of Trinidad (pp. 973, 975\
To His Excellency Sir W. T. Denison, Governor ofVan Diemen’s Land, for the collection of the raw produceof that colony (p. 993).
To Messrs.* W. P. Hammond and Co., for a collectionof the raw produce of Siam and the Indian Archipelago,including fine specimens of caoutchouc, gutta percha,gamboge, gums and resins, terra japonica, shells, ivory,isinglass, &c. (2, 988).
To the Colonization Assurance Corporation, perW. B. P. Wood, for a collection of the raw produce ofWestern Australia (988).
To Sidi Mahmoud Benyad of Tunis , Commissionerfor the Government of Tunis , for a collection of the rawproduce of that country (1412).
To Abdul Hamid of Alexandria , Commissioner forthe Government of Egypt , for a collection of the rawproduce of that country (1408).
To the President * of the Maryland Committee,for a collection of specimens of the principal raw produceof that state (U. S. 371, p. 1459).
To the Agricultural Board of Valencia, for thecollection of raw produce (173, 209, pp. 1339 & 1342).
To the Agricultural Board of Saragossa for thecollection of raw produce (14S, pp. 1337. 1338
To Sir Robert Sciiomrurgk, H. M. Consul to theDominican Republic , for specimens of the raw produce ofthat republic (1428).
To the Royal Technological Institute of Tus-cany, for the collection of the raw produce of thatcountry (47, p. 1294).
Part I.—VEGETABLE KINGDOM.
From the fact that the Exhibition is the first attempt tobring together a complete collection of the natural rawproduce of all parts of the globe, and from the verydifferent views which were entertained in various coun-tries as to the nature of the Exhibition, and the kind ofsubstances which it was desirable to collect and exhibit,it necessarily follows that the collection, viewed as awhole, is very incomplete. In some cases, abundant andnumerous specimens have been sent of all the variouskinds of raw produce, constituting the staple productionsof the country, their value and importance having beenevidently felt and acknowledged; whilst, in other in-stances, it is apparent that the mere raw materials of anymanufacture have been regarded as of comparativelylittle importance, and are consequently either not shownat all, or else are but imperfectly and inadequately exhi-bited, in the form of small or inferior samples. This cir-cumstance, whilst, on the one hand, it has perhaps some-what diminished the labour of the Jury, has, at the sametime, rendered their task even more difficult than it wouldhave been had the entire collection been more uniformand complete. It is therefore necessary to bear in mind,that as the duty of the Jury was only to consider anddecide on the individual merits of the different specimensexhibited, so it necessarily happens that in some casesthey have to report,—as beiug the best sample shown,—aspecimen of second-rate quality, and one, even, decidedlyinferior to what is often met with in commerce as animport from some other country, specimens of which,
however, do not happen to be shown in the Exhibition.Every substance was examined carefully and consideredseparately; and in awarding a prize, it was only com-pared with substances of a similar nature. It is, ofcourse, evident, that the award of a medal to twodifferent things does not infer that they are of equalmerit or importance; but, merely, that each takenseparately, and upon its own merits alone, was foundworthy of high commendation and approval. It is alsoright to observe, that as the value of any sample of rawproduce does not rest merely on its own intrinsic supe-riority, but depends on a number of different circum-stances, which may modify its value; so, even a second-rate sample, either from a new locality, or prepared by anew and more advantageous method, may have more realmerit, and be more fully entitled to favourable mention,than a superior sample possessing no peculiar novelty,and deriving its excellence rather from accident thanfrom either the skill or the ingenuity of the producers.These remarks apply to all the classes of subjects broughtunder the consideration of the Jury; but in no instancedo they apply more strongly than in the case of gumsand resins.
Section I. —Gum and Resin Series.
A great deal of practical inconvenience and confusionis caused by the indiscriminate manner in which the term“ gum ” is used in commerce and the arts: it would cer-tainly be an advantage if the distinctions employed inscientific books were to be generally adopted by mer-chants and drug-brokers, the term “ gum ” being solelyapplied to those natural vegetable exudations whichsoften or dissolve in water, and yield a more or lessperfect mucilage, but which are wholly insoluble inspirit;—the term “ resin ” being applied to those fusibleand combustible vegetable substances which are quiteinsoluble in water, but which soften and dissolve in ether,the “ essential oils,” and “ spirit of wine;” and the term“ gum resin ” being used to designate those mixtures ofgum and resin, which are intermediate in properties, andpartake of the nature of each, being partially and imper-fectly soluble both in water and in alcohol.
“ Gum,” properly so called, is used in large quantitiesfor a number of purposes in the arts: it is generally dis-tinguished into soluble gum or gum-arabic, which readilyand perfectly dissolves in water, forming a clear muci-lage, and cherry-tree gum or gum-tragacanth, and thosedifficultly-soluble kinds of gum, which, though theysoften easily, do not readily form mucilage. Gum isextensively used in finishing and giving lustre to crapes,silk goods, &c., by calico-printers, shoemakers, and inother trades. A very large quantity of British gum,“dextrine,” or starch gum, is artificially prepared byroasting starch, and is extensively used as a cheap andstrong form of gum for various purposes, especially incalico-printing, and in the manufacture of adhesive labels.The resins are, for the most part, used in the formationof varnishes and lacquers, for various purposes in dyeing,and in the manufacture of size for paper-makers, sealing-wax, &c. Those resins, which naturally contain a portiouof volatile oil, such as the balsams, or oleo-resins likecommon turpentine, are used as sources of the volatileoils. Gum resins are chiefly used in medicine.
The total quantity of “gum” imported into Englandin 1848 and 1849, as shown by the Custom-housereturns, was,—
; 1S4S.
1849.
Cwts.
Cwts.
- 24,022
33.136
-' 7,404
6,577
- 2,958
4.315
234
314
- 34,618
44,342