greatest work of his life by the publication of his first Plea for Ragged Schools. This pamphlet, amid a multi tude of other encomiums, elicited a beautiful and sympa thetic letter from Lord Jeffrey. A ragged school was opened on the Castle Hill, which has been the parent of many similar institutions elsewhere. Guthrie insisted on bringing up all the children in his school as Protestants ; and he thus made his ragged schools not only educational but proselytizing institutions. This interference with religious liberty led to some controversy; and ultimately those who differed from Guthrie founded the United Indus trial School, which is managed on the principle of com bined secular and separate religious instruction. In April 1847 the degree of D.D. was conferred on Guthrie by the university of Edinburgh; and in 1850 Dr Hanna, the biographer of Dr Chalmers, was inducted as his colleague
in Free St John s Church.In 1850 Guthrie published A Plea on behalf of Drunkards and against Drunkenness, which was followed by The Gospel in Ezekiel (1855); The City, its Sins and Sorrows (1857); Christ and the Inheritance of the /Saints (1858); Seedtime and Harvest of Ragged Schools (1860), consisting of his three Pleas for Ragged Schools; and The Way to Life and Speaking to the Heart (1862). These works had an enormous sale, and carried his fame to distant parts of the world. Portions of them were trans lated into French and Dutch. In 1862 he was moderator of the Free Church General Assembly ; but he seldom took a prominent part in the business of the Church courts. In connexion with the total abstinence movement he often appeared on the platform, where his oratorical talents, rich humour, genuine pathos, and inimitable power of story- tolling eminently qualified him to shine. He was also greatly interested in the work of the Evangelical Alliance, of which he was one of the vice-presidents. In 1864, his health being seriously impaired, he resigned public work as pastor of Free St John s (May 17), although his nominal connexion with the congregation ceased only with his death. Guthrie had occasionally contributed papers to Good Words, and, about the time of his retirement from the ministry, he became editor of the Sunday Magazine, himself contributing several series of papers which were afterwards published separately. In 1865 he was presented with 5000 as a mark of appreciation from the public. His closing years were spent mostly in retirement ; and after an illness of several months duration he died at St Leonard s-on-Sea, February 24, 1873.
Dr Guthrie s fame rests on his labours as a social reformer and his extraordinary oratorical power as a preacher and platform speaker. He will always be remembered as one of the most successful and warm-hearted of Christian philanthropists ; and his influence over the masses of his countrymen was very great. His theology was the moderate Calvinism generally accepted by the Evangelical school. His style is distinguished by great graphic power and richness of illustration ; but, although admirably adapted for effect on a popular audience, it is far too florid and Asiatic in its rhetoric to please a sound literary critic.
See Autobiography of Thomas Guthrie, D.D., and Memoir by his sons, 2 vols., London, 1874-5.
GUTS MUTHS, Johann Christoph Friedrich (1759–1839), a German teacher and the principal founder of the German school system of gymnastics, was born at Quedlin- burg 9th August 1 759. He was educated at the gymnasium of his native town and at Halle university; and in 1785 he went to Schnepfenthal, where he taught geography and gymnastics in Salzmann s academy. His method of teach ing gymnastics was expounded by him in various hand books ; and it was chiefly through them that gymnastics very soon came to occupy such an important position in the school system of Germany. He also did much to introduce a better method of instruction in geography. He died May 21, 1839.
His principal works are Gymnastik far die Jugend, 1793; Spiele zur Uebung und Erholung des Korpers und Geistesfiir die Jugend, 1796 ; Turnbuch, 1817 ; Handbuch der Geographic, 1810 ; and a number of books constituting a Bibliothekfur Pddagogik, Schulwesen, und die gesammte pddagogische Literatur Deutschlands. He also contributed to the Vollstandiges Handbuch der neuesten Erd- leschreibung, and along with Jacobi published Devtsches Land und dcutsches Volk, the first part, Dcufsches Land, being written by him.
GUTTA PERCHA (Gutta Taban, &c.). This name[1] is applied to the concreted or inspissated juice of various plants belonging to the natural order Sapotacea?, growing in the Malay Peninsula. To what particular tree the name " gutta percha " properly belongs, there is no evidence to show ; but it has been generally given to Dichopsis Gutta (Bentley and Trimen) or Isonandra Gutta (Hooker), the vernacular name of which is " taban."[2]
The Dichopsis Gutta attains a height of 60 to 80 feet, with a diameter of 2 to 4 feet. The leaves are obovate- oblong and entire, pale green on the upper side, and covered beneath with short reddish-brown shining down. The flowers are arranged in clusters of 3 or 4 in the axils of the leaves. The fruit, about an inch long, is of an ovoid shape, and is eaten by the Malays. In Siak (Sumatra) a vegetable butter is prepared from the seeds. The wood is soft, fibrous, spongy, of a pale colour, and marked with black lines, these being reservoirs of gutta percha.[3] The gutta, as it flows from the tree, is of a greyish hue, occasionally with a somewhat roseate tinge, probably arising from the colour vessels of the bark becoming ruptured through surcharge, and their contents mixing with the gutta. This species does not furnish all the gutta percha of commerce ; indeed there are other trees which yield larger quantities. In all there are about thirty varieties known ; but some of the vernacular names in different districts may prove mere synonyms.
The geographical distribution of the trees producing gutta percha is very restricted. Giitzlaff defines the limits as 6 N. and S. lat. and 100 to 120 E. long.; whilst Captain Lingard (who has great personal experience on the subject) gives the limits as 4 N. and 3 S. lat., still further restrict ing the finer varieties to 3 50 N. and 1" S., with a temperature ranging between 66 and 90 Fahr., and a very moist atmosphere. These limits are well within the iso therm of 80 Fahr. Many of the best varieties are found only on the hill slopes at a distance from the sea-coast, each variety forming a separate grove of from 200 to 500 trees, with high forest trees above them. They grow best in a rich light loam, with a rocky subsoil.
directly after the rainy season, as in the dry season the gutta does not flow so readily, while during the rains agne and jungle fever are most prevalent, and the gutta is liable to be washed away from the felled trees. The yield of a well- grown tree of the best variety is from 2 to 3 fib of gutta percha, such a tree being about thirty years old, 30 to 40 feet high, and 1 to 3 feet in circumference. A full-grown tree
sometimes measures 100 to 140 feet to its first branches,
- ↑ Gutta, or as it is variously written gutah, gatta, gittah, gatta, is the Malayan term for gum, and Percha (pronounced as in perch, not hard as perka), accentuated variously as parcha, pertja, percha, is the name of the tree ; hence the term may be translated " gum of the percha tree." The old name of Sumatra was Pulo or Pulau Percha, i.e. , " island (Pulau) of the percha tree."
- ↑ Tuban, tuban, taban is the name of the tree, and, according to Logan, a new word has been added to the Malay language, viz., Menaban (Men[t]aban), i.e., to collect gutta taban. The greater number of Malay nouns admit of conversion into verbs by a prefix.
- ↑ For figures and botanical descriptions seeLond. Journ. Bot., 1848; De Vriese, De Handel in Getah- Percha ; and Beutley and Trimen s Medicinal Plants, part 35, p. 16 (1878).
