Gum

“ In a word, the gum-chewing Americans are trying to chew their cud as did their ancestors. Any habit like this is seized upon by [Pg 125] manufacturers for their personal profit, and every expedient is employed to induce people to chew. The gum is mixed with perfumes, and sold as a breath purifier; others mix it with pepsin, to aid the digestion; some with something else, which is sold on ships and excursion-boats as a cure or preventive for seasickness, all of which finds a large sale among the credulous Americans, who by a clever leader can be made to take up any fad or habit. ”

“ The swift-growing Australian gum, which has now domesticated itself in most of the warmer parts of the world, waves its pliant tops in the breeze, more picturesque in the distance than it is close at hand. ”

“ The gum has become changed while buried in the earth such a long, long time. Wise men use the word 'fossilized' when they speak of what has happened to it. The now beautiful, changed gum is called amber. ”

“ It is cool and vermifuge; strengthens the teeth; cures seminal weakness, fever, white leprosy, swellings, eruptions from bile, marasmus, Juzam, and mucous disorders. The gum is sweet and aphrodisiac, and strengthens the system. That made from the pith of the Khaer, is useful in boils and eruptions, affections of the mouth, and disorders of mucus and blood. ”

“ Gum is capable of being dissolved in water, and forming with it a viscid transparent fluid; but not in vinous spirits or oil; it burns in the fire to a black coal, without melting or catching fire; and does not dissolve in water at boiling heat. The name of gum has been inaccurately given to several species of gum-resins, which consist of resin and various other substances, flowing from many kinds of trees, and becoming hard by exposure to the air. ”

“ To Whiten and Beautify the Teeth.—Take gum tragacanth, one ounce; pumice stone, two drams; gum arabic, one ounce; cream of tartar, one ounce. Dissolve the gums in rose-water, and adding to it the powder, form the whole into little sticks, which are to be dried slowly in the shade, and afterwards kept for use. Use on the brush like soap.
HOW TO HAVE SOFT, WHITE AND BEAUTIFUL HANDS.
There are very few beautiful hands, but to make the hands beautiful rests, with scarcely an exception, with the possessor. ”

“ Then, if it be the upper gum that requires lancing, you ought to go to the head of the child, looking over, as it were, and into his mouth, and should steady the gum with the index finger of your left hand; then you should take hold of the gum-lancet with your right hand—holding it as if it were a table-knife at dinner—and cut firmly along the inflamed and swollen gum and down to the tooth, 61until the edge of the gum-lancet grates on the tooth. Each incision ought to extend along the ridge of the gum to about the extent of each expected tooth. ”

“ Do not, however, depend upon the chewing of gum for hours each day as a means of exercising the teeth. Chewing a hard gum for a few minutes after a meal might be of advantage, but continual gum- chewing wastes and weakens the digestive elements of the saliva. ”

“ Gum tragacanth. Salep. Pipe-clay, mixed with gum senegal. Sulphate of lead. Sugar. Molasses. Glue.
After thickening with gum, we ought to avoid adding metallic solutions in the liquid state; such as nitrate of iron, of copper, solutions of tin, of subacetate of lead, &c.; as they possess the property of coagulating gum. I shall take care to specify the nature and proportion of thickening to be employed for each colour; a most important matter, hitherto neglected by English writers upon calico printing.
The atmosphere of the printing shops should never be allowed to cool under 65° or 70° F. ”

“ The sweet Gum-Tree, so call'd, because of the fragrant Gum it yields in the Spring-time, upon Incision of the Bark, or Wood. It cures the Herpes and Inflammations; being apply'd to the Morphew and Tettars. 'Tis an extraordinary Balsam, and of great Value to those who know how to use it. No Wood has scarce a better Grain; whereof fine Tables, Drawers, and other Furniture might be made. Some of it is curiously curl'd. It bears a round Bur, with a sort of Prickle, which is the Seed. ”

“ Gull′y-hunt′er, one who picks up things from gutters. [Prob. gullet.]
Gulp, gulp, v.t. to swallow eagerly or in large draughts.—n. a swallow: as much as is swallowed at once. [Dut. gulpen—gulp, a great draught.]
Gum, gum, n. the firm fleshy tissue which surrounds the teeth: (slang) insolence.—n. Gum′boil, a boil or small abscess on the gum. [A.S. góma, jaws; Ice. gómr, Ger. gaumen, palate.]
Gum, gum, n. a substance which exudes from certain trees and plants, and hardens on the surface, including those containing arabin, bassorin, and gum-resins.—v.t. to smear or unite with gum:—pr.p. ”

“ When the gum is plentiful each person employed collects about six pounds a day, which proves that the trees are detached; for if they grew in forests, as some say, and no time were lost in running from one to another, the quantity of gum collected must be much greater. ”

“ Starch and artificial gums always leave the cloth somewhat harsh in “feel” unless they are treated specially, and are moreover incapable of yielding the beautifully clear and perfectly even tints resulting from the use of natural gums. Very dark colours cannot well be obtained with gum senegal or gum arabic thickenings; they come away too much in washing, the um apparently preventing them from combining fully with the fibres. ”

“ L. E. D.—This gum is of a strong body, and does not perfectly dissolve in water. A dram will give to a pint of water the consistence of a syrup, which a whole ounce of gum Arabic is scarce sufficient to do. Hence its use for forming troches, and the like purposes, in preference to the other gums. It is used in an officinal powder, and is an ingredient in the compound powders of ceruss and amber.—Lewis's Mat. ”

“ The varieties of chewing gum that are manufactured would be a matter of surprise to those who have paid no attention to the subject, and who may suppose that the millions of mouths they see engaged in its mastication have a common and vulgar taste. ”

“ This gum is cleaned, and sent to the cities, where it brings a good price.”
“Well, if everybody was like me, the spruce gum trade wouldn’t be worth much,” said Kate. “I don’t see why anybody wants to chew the nasty stuff, especially a young lady. How it looks, to see your jaws going the whole time! There are some girls in the academy that always have their mouths full of gum. I think it’s real disgusting.”
“Chewing gum isn’t quite so bad as chewing tobacco, but it is a foolish and disgusting habit, as you say,” observed Marcus. ”

“ They require a long time to set or become hard.
Resins and Gums include a great number of substances, such as resin or hard pitch, which is distilled from pine-trees; shellac, mastic, elemi, copal, kauri gum, amber, gum arabic, dextrine made from flour, the gum of the peach and cherry, and of many other trees. To these may be added frankincense and tragacanth, which is less an adhesive than a stiffener and dresser. Gums are generally rather brittle; this is remedied by combination with oily substances, volatile oils, or caoutchouc. With these gums Lehner includes asphaltum. ”

“ To produce a good article, the gum, colouring matter, and sugar, must be in the state of extremely fine powder, and the mixture very carefully made; no lumps being left. Some persons dissolve the gum in a little water, and then stir the mixture over the fire until it acquires the proper consistence for moulding (as in No. 4, above) ”

“ There is no better way of preparing this than simply to put cold water upon gum arabic, and let it stand till dissolved. If for sticking purposes, as much water as will just cover the gum will be sufficient; but, for making quickmatch, 1 ounce or 11⁄4 ounce of gum to a pint of water. If required in a hurry, put the gum into cold water, in a pipkin, or tin saucepan, set it on the fire, make it boil, and keep stirring till dissolved. When cold, bottle, and cork it. ”

“ The thread will work its way under the gum, and the gum will become inflamed; it will work its way down between the gum and the tooth, and in the meantime the flour and the particles of food will also work down under the loose gum, finding a rallying-point on the thread; the mass will become impregnated with lime-salts, and will then begin to harden, and in a very short time you will have an excellent example of the disease under discussion. ”

“ But the big item and chief int. in the new life is gum. I guess it ain't no secret that pretty near everybody that quits smokeing takes up gum, but it ain't till you do it yourself that you know what it means to take up gum.
When you take up gum you don't just drop a penny in a gum machine or go in a store and lay down a nickel and say give me a package of gum. The gum habit is just like the cigarette habit and when you get it good, why you have your favorite brand of gum and you buy it by the box and it costs you $1.00 for a box of 20 packages and how long do you think the 20 packages lasts? ”

“ This gum was exceedingly sweet and pleasant to the taste; but, although of the most valuable quality, there was no hand to gather it in this forsaken although beautiful country; it either dissolved during the rainy season or was consumed by the baboons and antelopes. The aggageers took off from their saddles the skins of tanned antelope leather that formed the only covering to the wooden seats, and with these they made bundles of gum. When we remounted, every man was well laden. ”

“ If a piece of crust be given as a gum-stick, he must, while biting it, be well watched, or by accident he might loosen a large piece of it, which might choke him. The pressure of any of these excites a more rapid absorption of the gum, and thus causes the tooth to come through more easily and quickly. ”

“ They are coloured and flavoured with a great variety of ingredients, which are added in suitable proportions with the dissolved gum. Many kinds of medicated lozenges are also in extensive use, the medicinal ingredients being similarly incorporated with the gum. ”

“ DORIS. It’s gum. I thought I asked you not to chew gum. It doesn’t look clean-cut for a man to be chewing gum. You haven’t got any sense of what’s nice, Joseph. See here, suppose I was at a reception and went up to Mrs. ”

“ For synonyms, see Gammon. [234]
1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 6 p.m., par. I. I began to think either that he was quizzing me—gumming is the proper Transatlantic colloquialism, I think.
1875. ‘American English’ in Chamb. Journal, 25 Sept., p. 611. To ‘gum-tree’ is to elude, to cheat [from opossum] , and this again is shortened into ‘to gum,’ as the phrase, ‘Now don’t you try to gum me.’
Old Mother Gum, subs. phr. (common) .—An old woman: in derision.
By gum! intj. (common) .—A mild oath. For synonyms, see Oaths.
1860. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’) , The Season Ticket, No. ix. ”

“ She will not eat peanuts or fruit or candy, or chew gum, in public places. In fact, I cannot imagine a really refined young lady chewing gum even in the privacy of her own room, so offensive is it to good taste. ”

“ In our own country not only do children bite pencils and pen-holders, but they will chew small pieces of india-rubber for hours together. The practice of gum-chewing, so common among our American cousins, evidently comes down from far-off [Pg 128] times, for the primitive Australians chew several kinds of gum, attributing to them nutrient qualities, [17] and the Patagonians are said to keep their teeth white and clean by chewing matri, a gum which exudes from the incense bush, and is carefully collected by the women and children. ”

“ The "chewing-gum girl" is just a thoughtless girl, that is all; sit her in front of a mirror and compel her to chew gum for one-half hour and watch herself do it, and it will often suffice to cure her. Young ladies should be taught that chewing gum should be done in the bedroom, but never in the living-room or on the streets. ”

“ Of late, men have made fortunes in a year or two by exploiting chewing-gum, and defacing the landscape with the astounding announcement that gum is round. Who can resist buying gum that's round! At the same time chewing-gum types of education have been offered for sale in small packages. ”

“ Didn’t you know you were fibbing?” asked Ned.
“I didn’t say one word that was a lie! Now you think! My tooth was hooked. I had to use that gum to keep my tooth from getting cold and aching again. The dentist told me always to keep the nerve covered when I went outdoors. He said it was an exposed nerve that made a tooth jump. So I did as he advised me, that’s all!” explained Don.
[26] Not another word was said about the gum then, as the inner door to Uncle Ben’s offices was reached and the Publishers went in where all was quiet, and such a thing as gum was never thought of! ”

“ Gum is commonly found in those articles which {62}also contain starch; and has the same chemical composition as the latter, but is much less nutritious. In the East, gum-arabic and similar substances are largely employed as food. Persons who travel by caravan across vast, sandy deserts, find such substances well adapted to their wants, since they are not perishable, and are easily packed and carried. ”

“ Thus, on our farm and in the surrounding bush, although these are distinctly not gum-lands, there are little patches of ground, of a few acres in extent, whence we have got a ton or two of gum at times.
It is worthy of remark that the fresh resin of the living trees is not of any commercial value. Great masses of gum are often found in forks and clefts of the trees, and about the roots ”