220 CAOUTCHOUC AND GUTTA PEECHA 



water, and pressed into the form of slabs or flat pieces, generally 

 a foot broad, a foot and a half long, and three inches thick. 



Gutta percha has many properties in common with caout- 

 chouc, being completely insoluble in water, tenacious, but not 

 elastic, and an extremely bad conductor of caloric and electricity. 

 The name of vegetable leather which has been applied to it, gives 

 a good idea both of its appearance and tenacity. 



The uses of gutta percha are manifold. It serves for water- 

 pipes, for vessels fit for the reception of alkaline or acid liquids 

 which would corrode metal or wood, for surgical implements, 

 for boxes, baskets, combs, and a variety of other articles. The 

 wonder of the age, submarine telegraphy, could hardly have 

 been realised without it, as it is only by being cased in so 

 isolating a substance, and one so impermeable by water, that the 

 metallic wire is able to transmit the galvanic stream through 

 the depths of ocean from land to land. 



Few articles have risen so rapidly to a great commercial 

 importance as caoutchouc and gutta percha. The importation, 

 which in 1830 amounted to no more than 52,000 pounds, rose 

 in 1860 to no less than 43,039 hundredweight ; and the consump- 

 tion in France has advanced with no less giant strides, as above 

 two millions of pounds were imported in the year 1855. At the 

 present prices the value of the caoutchouc and gutta percha an- 

 nually consumed in Europe is certainly not far short of a million 

 of pounds sterling, and the quantity made use of in the now 

 Disunited States of America is scarcely less enormous. If to the 

 value of the raw article we add that which is imparted to it by 

 the manufacturer's skill, we can form some idea of the vast im- 

 portance of these gifts of the tropical zone, and of the extent to 

 which they are made to contribute to the comforts of mankind. 

 But will the supply be able to meet the constantly' growing 

 demand, or must the exhausted woods and plantations soon cease 

 to provide the market at a moderate price ? Fortunately, of 

 this there is no fear, as the colossal Ficus elastica, which furnishes 

 an abundance of caoutchouc, and is widely diffused over the East 

 Indies, enjoys in Assam alone an area of more than 1,000 square 

 miles. The Urceola elastica, which produces the best quality 

 of the elastic resin, is no less frequent in the islands of the 

 Eastern Archipelago, and its growth is moreover so rapid, that 

 in the space of five years the trunk acquires a thickness of from 



