O12 
ye RE: ; 
[APRIL 29, 1897 
trees of the forest, and is capable of producing in a good 
season as much as from Jo to 15 lbs. of rubber per tree. 
For the purpose of extracting the rubber, a deep vertical 
cut is made through the bark, and several oblique cuts 
on each side running into the main channel, at the base 
of which a vessel is placed to receive the exuding milk, 
which is coagulated by allowing a quantity to stand for 
some days in a cavity made in the trunk of a tree, so 
that the watery portion evaporates or soaks into the 
wood, leaving the solid portion behind, which is kneaded 
and pressed together into a solid mass, or the milk is 
placed in a vessel and boiled, the rubber beginning to 
coagulate almost immediately heat is applied. The 
whole history of this interesting discovery and develop- 
ment is given in the Aew Aulletin for 1895, p. 241, 
and 1896, p. 76, from which we learn that in January 
1895, which practically marks the beginning of the 
industry, the exports were 21,131 lbs., valued at 1214/., 
and at the end of December of the same year this had 
increased to such an extent as to show a total for 
the twelve months of 5,069,504 Ibs., of the value of 
269,892/. 135. 10d. 
As the Aulletin- remarks, “The history of this new 
rubber industry in Lagos is full of interest, and illustrates 
the wonderfully rich resources of the vast forests of West 
Africa. It shows also very clearly how largely these 
resources can be developed by judicious and intelligent 
action on the part of the Government.” 
Besides the important sources of rubbers already 
mentioned, there are still others belonging to the same 
natural order Apocynacee, natives of the Far East, which 
may be briefly referred to species of W2//ughbeta and 
Leuconotis. Alstonia plumosa yields a rubber in Fiji, 
whilst Forsteronia floribunda and F. gracilis yield rubbers 
in small quantities in Jamaica and Demerara respec- 
tively, though not in sufficient quantities to be of any 
commercial importance. 
From the foregoing list of plants, it will be seen 
how generally distributed the elastic juices are in Apo- 
cynaceous plants. 
Space will scarcely allow us even to mention the allied 
substance gutta-percha, the history of the introduction, 
development, and threatened failure of supply of which is 
fraught with so much interest and warning : how that -in 
1842 the substance was first discovered in Singapore, 
and the trees cut down in such large numbers to supply 
the European demand, that in five years after only a few 
trees existed in Singapore, and a similar fate attending 
the trees which were afterwards found in Penang, are 
facts that are well known as applying to Dichopsis gutta, 
a sapotaceous tree, upon which the reputation of gutta- 
percha was at first founded, and from which the bulk of 
the commercial supplies have continued to be drawn, 
though it is more than probable that a similar substance 
is yielded in the East by allied trees, the botany of which, 
however, is but imperfectly known. 
A substance very like gutta-percha is furnished by 
Mimnusops globosa, a large forest tree, growing to a 
height of from 60 to 70 or even 100 feet, in Trinidad, 
Jamaica, Venezuela, and British Guiana. It belongs to 
the Sapotaceze, and the solidified milk, or gutta, was first 
brought to this country in 1859. Its use with us has 
fluctuated very much, and it cannot be looked upon as a 
perfect substitute for true gutta-percha. 
The interest at the present time is much greater 
towards the rubber supplies than those of gutta, and this 
is borne out by a few facts referring to the probable 
-demand, in the very near future, that have appeared 
in a recent number of our contemporary, Commerce, 
among them being a statement that the estimated out- 
turn of cycles in Great Britain and the United States 
during the present year will amount to 1,750,000; be- 
sides this, there is the probable development of motor 
carriages, and the extended application of rubber for the 
NO. 14.35, VOb. Sa 
tyres of ordinary vehicles. So that there is every pro- 
bability that the interest in rubber-yielding plants will 
go on increasing. JOHN R. JACKSON. 
Museum, Royal Gardens, Kew. 
THE RESOURCES AND THE NEEDS OF 
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY. 
IS GRACE THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, 
K.G., Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, 
has requested us to give publicity to a statement as to its 
financial position and requirements, which has been 
drawn up for him by an influential Committee of residents, 
and whose authority he states to be unquestionable. Its 
purpose is to make known to the public the true state of 
the University’s finances in relation to its increased 
duties, in the hope that means may be found for raising 
its endowments to the level of its present requirements. 
The statement seeks to remove the impression that the 
University is a wealthy body. The fall in agricultural 
values has so seriously crippled it and its constituent 
Colleges, that this impression is no longer justified ; anda 
point has been reached at which, without new endow- 
ments, complete efficiency and necessary expansion are 
gravely impeded. _Benefactions for the establishment of 
special prizes and scholarships have not been wanting ; 
but the flow of contributions for general academic pur- 
poses has for years practically ceased, though it is such 
gifts that are most needed, and at present most likely 
to be widely useful. 
It appears that while the Colleges undertake much of 
the teaching for the degree examinations in mathematics 
and classics, all the higher branches, and the entire 
round of the natural and physical sciences, are pro- 
vided for by the University, which maintains the library, 
the observatory, the botanic garden, eight museums, and 
eight laboratories. The University staff consists of about 
120 professors, readers, and lecturers, whose stipends are 
paid partly by the common fund, partly by their emolu- 
ments as Fellows and Lecturers of Colleges. A Pro- 
fessor’s stipend of 700/. or 800/. is diminished by 200/. if 
he holds a Fellowship ; but in nearly all the Colleges the 
dividend is less than this sum, and the Professor, there- 
fore, does not receive his full nominal stipend. By the 
statutes there should be twenty Readerships at 4o0/. 
each: the University has been able to establish six only, 
and these, in general, at stipends of about 100/. to 150/. The 
University Lecturers are usually selected from the College 
staffs, and receive, as a rule, stipends of 50/. a year. 
In consequence of the conditions established in 1881, 
four-fifths of the Fellowships are now held by resident 
graduates. The maximum dividend is fixed at 250/., but 
in fifteen out of seventeen Colleges this sum is not 
reached, and in some the dividend does not exceed one- 
third of the maximum. 
The revenue for 1896 consisted of about 40,000/. 
derived from fees; about 16,500/. contributed by the 
Colleges as a tax on their revenues and tuition-fees ; and 
about 6000/7. obtained from the University endowments 
(tithes, rents, &c.). Of this sum, over 33,000/. was paid in 
stipends ; over 22,000/. for the maintenance of libraries, 
museums, laboratories, &c.; some 2200/. in repayment 
of a loan for buildings ; and 5000/. in part payment of 
necessary sites for new buildings adjoining the present 
museums. 
From fees it is not easy to see how more can be 
derived without diminishing the number of students and 
graduates ; the endowments are insignificant, and steadily 
decreasing in value ; and the College contribution has 
already, in view of the financial difficulties of these cor- 
porations, been more than once reduced. When the tax 
reaches its maximum in 1902, the most it can yield, in 
addition to its present amount, is probably about 2000/. 
On the other hand, greater expenditure is called for in 
