COPAL (Mex. copalli, resin). A resinous mineral substance of vegetable origin, chiefly used in the manufacture of varnishes and lac quers. The hardest varieties are used like amber, for making various objects. It appears in commerce in smooth rounded masses, colorless or lemon-yellow, translucent or transparent, rather brittle, fusible at a somewhat elevated temperature, and but sparingly soluble in oil of turpentine. In making varnishes, copal is first rendered soluble; for this purpose it is melted, and, on cooling, reduced to a powder and ex posed for some time to the action of atmospheric air. It is then boiled with linseed oil and oil of turpentine, and the resulting solution is filtered. A number of different pale-yellow or almost colorless varnishes are obtained by slightly modi fying this process and changing the relative quantities of the ingredients. Copal is found in many parts of the globe; it is dug in Zanzi bar and Mozambique. at several places in west
ern Africa, in New Caledonia, and New Zealand, in East India. Brazil. etc. The varieties brought from Zanzibar and Mozambique are noted for their hardness, and have therefore the highest market value; they are supposed to have been produced by trees like the Traehylobium Horne mannian n in and Trachalobium Mosambieense. The copal dug in New Zealand and New Cale donia is known in commerce as coterie and dam mar it is the semi-fossil resin of the Dammara austratis and Damn:gra orata, trees still abun dantly growing in those countries; the natives of New Zealand chew the resin when freshly ex uded by the trees. Animc (q.v.) is another variety of copal; in England, however, the name anime is applied to all the different varieties of copal. A mineral substance resembling copal, and known as fossil copal, is found at. Highgate, near London.