Notes on gutta and caoutchouc in the Malay Peninsula
This is a two-page note by H. J. Murton on the production and trade of gutta-percha and caoutchouc (natural rubber) in the Malay Peninsula, published in the inaugural issue of the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1878).
Summary
The note addresses the two principal latex-based commodities of the Malay Peninsula — gutta-percha and caoutchouc — as they were known to colonial observers in the late 1870s. Given its brevity (pp. 106–107), it likely provides a concise overview of the sources, collection methods, and commercial significance of these materials in the region, consistent with the ethnographic and economic notes typical of the JSBRAS’s early volumes.