September 14, 191 1] 



NATURE 



349 



conditions abroad. For instance, in dealing with bark 

 crushing no distinction is made between the East 

 African scrub vines with semi-fluid latex, and the 

 larger dense forest vines in which the latex is thin 

 and watery ; nor are the paragraphs dealing with 

 Castilloa elastica and Funtumia elastica free from 

 misconceptions. 



The chapter on the plantation indus- 

 try is a book in itself, and will be read 

 with the greatest interest. While lay- 

 ing no claim to being able to treat 

 this truly extensive subject " in encyclo- 

 paedic fashion," the author is to be con- 

 gratulated upon the way he has singled 

 out for mention, in few and telling 

 words, the salient points under each of 

 his headings. Under that of "Competi- 

 tion from other Sources," we read : "The 

 first rubber to go will undoubtedly be that 

 which is not prepared in a cleanly 

 fashion. ' Africans ' as we know them 

 now will be a thing of the past, and that 

 very shortly. It does not, however, 

 follow that the rubber forests of Africa 

 will no longer furnish their quota to the 

 world's supply. On the contrary, it 

 seems to me that the system of rationally 

 working forest areas on semi-plantation 

 lines ... is likely to be extended." 



Mr. Schidrowitz is very well known as 

 a rubber chemist, and in the second half 

 of the book he finds himself, as it were, 

 on more congenial soil. In dealing with 

 the chemistry of rubber, theory of vulcan- 

 isation, manufacture of rubber goods, 

 substitutes and waste-rubber disposal, 

 much new matter is introduced which is 

 likely to be invaluable, not only to the 

 general reader, but to the manufacturer 

 and the chemist. The importance of the 

 waste rubber industry is emphasised, and 

 in this connection the author says: "If 

 we assume that the crude rubber em- 

 ployed in the manufacture of goods in 

 the British market yearly amounts to 

 12,000 tons, and this reappears in the 

 shape of finished rubber articles, contain- 

 ing on the average perhaps not more than 

 30 per cent, of rubber, it is plain that 

 there must be something like 30,000 to 

 40,000 tons of waste rubber annually. Of 

 this, perhaps, one-half is recoverable, the 

 remainder actual waste." 



The chemical analysis of both vulcanised 

 and raw rubbers, mechanical tests, and 

 kindred subjects are also dealt with at 

 length, while at the end of the book is 

 an appendix of ten pages dealing with 

 the wording of contracts and specifications 

 which might also be described as interest- 

 ing reading, which says much for the 

 author's happy style of literary construc- 

 tion. 



On p. 140, the reader with planting 

 interests at stake will find: "The manu- 

 facture of synthetic rubber on a com- 

 mercial scale will only be possible if 

 low-priced raw material, capable of transformation 

 at a low cost and with a hitjh yield, can be found. 

 So far these conditions do not appear to have been 

 fulfilled." 



With the Middle East and its Hevea plantations just 

 now so prominent in rubber finances one is apt to 

 NO. 2185, VOL. 87] 



forget that the sources of rubber are many and 

 various. Trees, vines, shrubs, tubers, rhizomes, &c, 

 belonging botanically to different classes of plants and 

 growing in different continents, all appear in the list 

 of productions of this commodity. This being so, and 

 without implying that the book under review would 

 have been more successful in any other form, it is 





From " Rubber." 



suitable 



clear that future publications on rubber will he likely 

 to attain the greatest measure of utility if confined to 

 one or other branch ot this already stupendous sub- 

 ject. 



Mr. Schidrowitz 's book is excellently written, u:;d 

 is illustrated larp-elv from photographs taken by him 

 during a tour in Malaya and Sarawak (Borneo). 



