Sample of rubber affected with 'Blood-Spot' - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 44118 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 151.01 EUPHORBIACEAE Hevea brasiliensis | Entry Book Number | 151.1908 | |
| Artefact Name | Sample of rubber affected with 'Blood-Spot' | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | Not defined | TDWG Region | Not defined | ||
| Parts Held | Sample of rubber affected with 'Blood-Spot' | Geography Description | |||
| Uses | Sample of rubber affected with 'Blood-Spot'Use: MATERIALS - Latex/Rubber User: Man | TDWG use | MATERIALS - Latex/Rubber | ||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | Ridley HN, Botanic Gardens Singapore | Donor No | |||
| Donor Date | 05/11/1908 | Donor Notes | |||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Label source: See letter 323.1908. Copy of a letter from Ridley, Botanic Gardens, Singapore Aug. 27th 1908. Dear Dr Prain, I am sending today two sheets of Para rubber, affected with 'Blood-spot'. This ailment is I believe due to a bacteria or fungus. Th, ese sheets are made of pot washings, the pots are washed into a tub of water and any stray latex goes in too. It is then coagulated with acetic acid, and makes an inferior rubber. We have only had this in the pot washing, but other estates have had their, good sheets destroyed. The spots first appear faintly when the sheets are getting dry, and darken in a few days, but do not always take on the deep red you see in one sheet. A piece of blood spot rubber inserted into a sound sheet does not spread into th, e sound rubber. After a time the rubber breaks up around the blood spot and is powdery & rotten, but does not go tacky. Plunging the sheets in nearly boiling water - Bambas plan - appears to prevent it. I think the specimen may interest Massee who might, be able to find the destructive organism. Anyway the thing is sufficiently curious to send you I think. x0Dx0AMr Massee unable to account for the red spots. Signed ? 3.xi.08. Opuscular source: No trace of living fungi or bacteria can be detected in the red p, atches. When a red portion of rubber is disolved in chloroform the remains of fungi can be seen, a sp. of Mucor being almost constantly present. These fungi are presumably growing on the latex before coagulating and were engulfed like flies in amber. As t, o whether the Mucor produced a change in the latex, that resulted tin the formation of red patches after coagulation, cannot be determined at Kew. Copy of the report by Mr Massee. | ||||