CHINESE INSECT WHITE WAX.

Although the substance called Chinese Insect White Wax has long been known in Europe, it is only within recent years that the mystery which has surrounded this remarkable industry has been cleared up. Amongst Europeans, we find Martini in his Novus Atlas Sinensis—a work descriptive of the Chinese Empire, published in 1655—mentioning alba cera as a product of the Hu-kwang provinces, and of the province of Kwangsi. Again, Gabriel de Magalhaes, in his “Nouvelle RÉlation de la Chine,” published in 1668, states that white wax is produced in the provinces of Hunan, Hupeh, and Shantung; while in the “Lettres Edificantes,” published in 1752, PÈre Chanseaume has a “Memoire sur la cire d’arbre,” or tree wax. In the “Comptes Rendus de l’AcadÉmie des Sciences” of 1840, Stanislas Julien adds some notes on tree wax and the insects which produce it, and quotes from Chinese authors on the same subject; and in volume XII. of the Pharmaceutical Journal, published in 1853, there is an article by Daniel Hanbury entitled “The Insect White Wax of China.” More recently, Fortune, the two delegates of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce who ascended the River Yang-tsze into Western China in 1868, Baron von Richthofen, and Gill, have all alluded to the subject; and Mr. Baber, while he held the post of Her Majesty’s Agent in Western China, wrote a special and very interesting report on Insect White Wax, to which, as his successor, I had free access. In 1880, PÈre Rathouis published at Shanghai a short memoir on the white wax insect.

As early as 1522, this wax is mentioned in Chinese books; but at that time the idea seems to have been prevalent that the insects, by some mysterious process of metamorphosis, were themselves converted into a white substance and did not excrete the wax.

Although the province of Ssu-ch’uan has always been recognized as the chief breeding country of the white wax insect, and the great field for the production and manufacture of the white wax of commerce, the wax is found and manufactured in several other provinces, notably in Kuei-chow, Hu-nan, Fuh-kien, ChÊ-kiang, and An-hui, and in reality exists in small quantities from Chih-li in the north to the island of Hainan in the south of China.

In the spring of the year 1884, I received instructions from the Foreign Office to procure for Sir Joseph Hooker dried specimens of the foliage and flowers of the trees on which the insects are propagated and excrete the wax; specimens of the twigs incrusted with the wax; samples of the cakes in the form in which the wax occurs in commerce; and Chinese candles made from the wax. I was also instructed to obtain, if possible, information on the whole subject of wax production, in addition to that furnished in Mr. Baber’s Report. My report on this interesting subject was published as an Appendix to a Parliamentary Paper in February, 1885; but at the time that that Paper was written and despatched I had not completed my investigations, and, unfortunately, some further notes which I sent to the Foreign Office were too late for publication with the Parliamentary Paper. As, therefore, the information already made public is but fragmentary, and as there are some mistakes into which, owing to my distance from scientific advice, I have fallen, I think it right that I should take the first opportunity that has offered since my arrival in England of supplying details and correcting mistakes.

If we glance at a map of China, we will find that the upper Yang-tsze, or Golden River as it is there called, is joined by a river called the Ya-lung or Ta-ch’ung, a little to the west of the one hundred and second degree of longitude, and that the united waters flow south-east below the twenty-sixth degree of latitude, and again turn north, forming, as it were, a loop towards the province of YÜn-nan. Between these two rivers flows another smaller river called the An-ning, which joins the Ya-lung before the latter unites with the Golden River. The An-ning flows down a valley called the valley of Chien-ch’ang, the local name of Ning-yuan Fu, the principal town within the river loop. This valley, the northern boundary of which is lat. 29° 20', and southern boundary, lat. 27° 11', is the great breeding ground of the white wax insect. In the valley, which is about 5000 feet above the level of the sea, and on the hills which bound it, there is one very prominent tree, called by the Chinese of that region the Ch’ung shu, or “Insect Tree.” It is known under different names in the same province of Ssu-ch’uan; it is called the Tung-ching shu, or “Evergreen Tree,” and the Pao-kÊ-ts’ao shu, or “Crackling-flea Tree,” from the sputtering of the wood when burning. It is an ever-green with leaves springing in pairs from the branches. They are thick, dark-green, glossy, ovate, and pointed. In the end of May and beginning of June, the tree bears clusters of small white flowers, which are succeeded by fruit of a dark purple colour. From the specimens of the tree which I forwarded to Kew Gardens, the authorities there have come to the conclusion that it is Ligustrum lucidum, or large-leaved privet.

In the month of March 1883, I passed through the Chien-chang valley; but, knowing that Mr. Baber had already furnished a report on the subject of white wax, I confined myself to a mere cursory examination of the insect tree. In that month, however, I found attached to the bark of the boughs and twigs, numerous brown pea-shaped excrescences. The larger excrescences or scales were readily detachable, and, when opened, presented either a whitey-brown pulpy mass, or a crowd of minute animals like flour, whose movements were only just perceptible to the naked eye.

In the months of May and June 1884, when I was called upon for more detailed information on the subject, I had the opportunity of examining these scales and their contents with some minuteness in the neighbourhood of Ch’ung-k’ing, and also within the jurisdiction of Chia-ting Fu, the chief wax producing country in the province of Ssu-ch’uan. Ten miles to the east of Ch’ung-k’ing, I plucked the scales from the trees—the Ligustrum lucidum—and on opening them (they are very brittle) I found a swarm of brown creatures, crawling about, each provided with six legs and a pair of antennae. Each of these moving creatures was a white wax insect—the coccus pe-la of Westwood. Many of the scales also contained either a small white bag or cocoon covering a pupa, or a perfect imago in the shape of a small black beetle. This beetle is a species of Brachytarsus. For this information I am indebted to Mr. McLachlan, to whom the insects forwarded by me to Kew were submitted for examination.

If left undisturbed in the broken scale, the beetle, which, from his ungainly appearance, is called by the Chinese the niu-Êrh, or “buffalo,” will, heedless of the cocci which begin to crawl outside and inside the scale, continue to burrow in the inner lining of the scale, which is apparently his food. The Chinese declare that the beetle eats his minute companions in the scale, or at least injures them by the pressure of his comparatively heavy body; and it is true that the scales from Chien-ch’ang in which the beetles are numerous are cheaper than those in which they are absent. But, although Chinese entomology is not to be trusted, there is, after all, a grain of truth in the statement. The genus brachytarsus is parasitic on coccus, and the grub, not the imago, is the enemy of the white wax insect. The Chinese, therefore, are not far wrong when they pay a lower price for the beetle-infested scales.

When a scale is plucked from the tree, an orifice where it was attached to the bark is disclosed. By this orifice the cocci are enabled to escape from the detached scales. If the scales are not detached, but remain fixed to the bark, it may be asked, “How are the cocci to find their way out?” It has been stated by entomologists that they know not of any species of the family Coccidae that cannot find their way from underneath the mother-scale without assistance. This may also hold good in the present case; but all I contend for is, that the cocci pe-la take eager advantage of the opening pierced from inside the scale by the beetle to escape from their imprisonment. In addition to the branches with intact scales, which I carried home with me for examination, I closely observed the scales that had been left undetached on the ligustrum, and found only one orifice in each scale—a circular hole similar in every respect to the orifice pierced by the beetles in the scales which I had beside me. At Chia-ting I examined scales that had been brought from the Chien-ch’ang valley. They were suspended on the wax trees and were for the most part empty. They had only one orifice—that by which they had been attached to the bark of the ligustrum, and by which the cocci had no doubt escaped. In the very first scale I opened there, however, I found a solitary beetle.

The Chien-ch’ang valley is the great insect-producing country; but the insects may be, and are, propagated elsewhere, as in Chien-wei Hsien to the south of Chia-ting Fu, and even as far east as Ch’ung-k’ing. These insects are, however, declared by the Chinese to be inferior, and they fetch a lower price.

Two hundred miles to the north-east of Chien-ch’ang, and separated from it by a series of mountain ranges, is the prefecture of Chia-ting, within which insect white wax as an article of commerce is produced. In the end of April, the scales are gathered from the ligustrum in the Chien-ch’ang valley, and collected for the most part at the town of TÊ-ch’ang, on the right bank of the An-ning River, which I have already mentioned, in latitude 27° 24'.

To this town porters from Chia-ting annually resort in great numbers—in former years they are said to have numbered as many as ten thousand—to carry the scales across the mountains to Chia-ting. The scales are made up into paper packets, each weighing about sixteen ounces, and a load usually consists of about sixty packets. Great care has to be taken in the transit of the scales. The porters between the Chien-ch’ang valley and Chia-ting travel only during the night, for, at the season of transit, the temperature is already high during the day, and would tend to the rapid development of the insects and their escape from the scales. At their resting places, the porters open and spread out the packets in cool places. Notwithstanding all these precautions, however, each packet, on arrival at Chia-ting, is found to be more than an ounce lighter than when it started from Chien-ch’ang. In years of plenty, a pound of scales laid down in Chia-ting costs about half-a-crown; but in years of scarcity, such as last year, when only a thousand loads are said to have reached Chia-ting from Chien-ch’ang, the price is doubled.

In favourable years, a pound of Chien-ch’ang scales is calculated to produce from four to five pounds of wax; in bad years, little more than a pound may be expected, so that, taken as a whole, white wax culture has in it a considerable element of risk.

West from the right bank of the Min River, on which the city of Chia-ting lies, stretches a plain to the foot of the sacred O-mei range of mountains. This plain, which runs south to the left bank of the Ta-tu River, which forms the northern boundary of the Chien-ch’ang valley farther west, is an immense rice-field, being well-watered by streams from the western mountains. Almost every plot of ground on this plain, as well as the bases of the mountains, are thickly edged with stumps, varying from three or four to a dozen feet in height, with numerous sprouts rising from their gnarled heads. These stumps resemble, at a distance, our own pollard willows. The leaves spring in pairs from the branches; they are light green, ovate, pointed, serrated, and deciduous. In June, 1884, when I visited this part of the country, some of the trees were bearing bunches apparently of fruit in small pods; but, as no flowering specimens were then procurable, there still exists a little uncertainty as to this tree. I am informed, however, that it is, in all probability, the Fraxinus Chinensis, a species of ash. The tree is known to the Chinese as the Pai-la shu, or “white wax tree.”

It is to this, the great home of the wax tree, that the scales are carried from the Chien-ch’ang valley. On their arrival, about the beginning of May, they are made up into small packets of from twenty to thirty scales, which are enclosed in a leaf of the wood-oil tree. The edges of the leaf are tied together with a rice-straw, by which the packet is also suspended close under the branches of the wax tree. A few rough holes are drilled in the leaf with a blunt needle, so that the insects may find their way through them to the branches.

On emerging from the scales, the insects creep rapidly up the branches to the leaves, among which they nestle for a period of thirteen days. They then descend to the branches and twigs, on which they take up their positions, the females, doubtless, to provide for a continuation of the race by developing scales in which to deposit their eggs, and the males to excrete the substance known as white wax. Whether or not the wax is intended as a protection to the scales, I am not prepared to say. I have frequently observed, however, scales far removed from any deposit of white wax, and it may be asked whether or not it is in these scales at a distance from the wax that the female beetles, cuckoo-like, deposit their eggs. The Chinese in Chia-ting have learned to distinguish the wax-producing from the non-wax-producing insects. They divide them into two classes, called respectively, the la-sha, or “wax sand,” and the huang-sha, or “brown sand.” The former, which are of a reddish-white colour, are declared to be the wax producers, while the latter, which are of a brownish colour, are said to produce no wax. These are, without doubt, the males and females respectively. During the thirteen days after their escape from the scales, and their future life when studded on the bark, the insects must derive their nourishment from the sap of the tree, although to the unaided eye there is no visible impression on leaves or bark. From the absence of any such marks, the Chinese declare that the insects live on dew, and that the wax perspires from their bodies.

The wax first appears as a white coating on the under sides of the boughs and twigs, and resembles very much sulphate of quinine, or a covering of snow. It gradually spreads over the whole branch, and attains, after three months, a thickness of about a quarter of an inch. When the white deposit becomes visible on the branches, the farmer may be seen going the round of his trees, carefully belabouring each stump with a heavy wooden club, in order, as he says, to bring to ground the la-kou, or “wax dog,” a declared enemy of the wax insect. This probably refers to the beetle-mother. This clubbing of the stumps was done during the heat of the day, when the wax insects are said to have a firm hold of the bark.

After the lapse of a hundred days from the placing of the insects on the wax tree, the deposit is complete. The branches are then lopped off, and as much of the wax as possible removed by hand. This is placed in an iron pot of boiling water, and the wax, melting, rises to the surface, is skimmed off and placed in a round mould, whence it emerges as the white wax of commerce. Where it is found impossible to remove the wax by hand, twigs and branches are thrown into the pot, so that this wax is darker and inferior. Finally, not satisfied that all the wax has been collected, the operator takes the insects, which have meantime sunk to the bottom of the pot, and placing them in a bag, squeezes them until they have given up the last drop of their valuable product. They are then—an ignominious ending to their short and industrious career—thrown to the pigs!

On the 27th of August, 1884, branches of the ligustrum coated with wax were brought to me. On removing the wax I found, close to the bark, a number of minute brown bags, evidently the male cocci in a state of metamorphosis. I examined the undisturbed branches from day to day, and on the 4th September I observed quite a number of white hair-like substances rising above the surface of the wax deposit. These ultimately proved to be the white forked tails of the male insects forcing their way up from the bark, and dislodging, as they emerged, small quantities of the wax. They were now provided with long wings, and, after tarrying for a time on the branches, flew away. By the 13th of September they had all disappeared, leaving visible the tunnels from the bark, upwards, by which they had escaped.

It will be seen from the above remarks that, as the branches of the wax tree are boiled with the wax, the scales are destroyed, and hence it is necessary to have recourse annually to the Chien-ch’ang valley for fresh scales with eggs or insects.

When the branches are lopped off a wax tree, a period of three years is allowed to elapse before the scales are suspended under the new branches of the same tree. Wind and rain are greatly dreaded at the season of suspending the insects, and the sprouts of one and two years’ growth are considered too weak to resist a gale.

So much for the wax insect and its product. I come now to the subject of the quantity produced, its value and uses.

Since the introduction of kerosene oil into China, and its almost universal use in the remotest provinces of the Empire, the demand for white wax has declined considerably, and the supply has decreased in a corresponding ratio. Not many years ago, as I have already stated, ten thousand porters were required to carry the scales from the Chien-ch’ang valley to the wax tree country, and in 1884 we find that a thousand porters were able to transport the Chien-ch’ang supply. In many homesteads in Ssu-ch’uan, where candles were formerly the only lights, kerosene has been introduced, and it is now only when lighting is required outside—for there is no public lighting in China worthy of the name—that candles are employed by those who find it necessary to leave their homes after nightfall. I find, however, from the returns of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs for 1884, that the quantity of Insect White Wax imported into Shanghai in foreign vessels from the ports on the Yang-tsze, amounted to 7,628 piculs, or 454 tons, valued at 381,440 taels, or about £95,000—say on an average £200 a ton.

The value, like the demand, has also declined. Not many years ago it was quoted at double the prices realized at present.

Various uses are ascribed to this wax; but in Western China, as far as I have been able to gather, its sole use is for coating the exteriors of animal and vegetable tallow candles, and for giving a greater consistency to these tallows before they are manufactured into candles. Insect White Wax melts at 160° F., whereas animal tallow melts at about 95° F. Vegetable and animal tallow candles are therefore dipped into melted white wax; a coating is given to them, and prevents them guttering when lighted. It is also said to be used in other parts of China as a sizing for paper and cotton goods, for imparting a gloss to silk, and as a furniture polish. Chemists are likewise declared to utilize it for coating their pills; but, being in all probability of more value than the pills, the coating is removed before the latter are administered. In the Fuh-kien and ChÊ-kiang provinces it is employed to impart a polish to steatite, or soapstone ornaments, after the carving is completed.

Such, then, is a brief history of the production, manufacture, and uses of Chinese Insect White Wax—a substance interesting from a biological, as well as from a commercial, point of view.