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and having already advanced so far towards perfection with 
these grades, it would be a pity if too much inventive energy 
should be diverted from further perfecting them to devising all 
sorts of appliances for adapting the primitive methods of the 
forests to Eastern conditions. I allude to the ever increasing 
number of processes for curing latex by’ smoke. This research 
has derived its incentive from the theory that fine hard Para 
is stronger and more uniform in quality than smoked sheet 
or crépe by reason of the method of actual coagulation. Surely 
this is a slender foundation. It has yet to be demonstrated 
that the actual process by which fine hard Para is coagulated 
is responsible for any such access of strength and uniformity, 
and until such proof is forthcoming it must be premature to 
abandon our present standards. Any such change would 
involve all over again a complete unsettling of the consumers’ 
calculations, and he might once more have to set to work by 
bitter experience to buy his knowledge of still other new 
descriptions of rubber. 
I believe it is a well-known fact that the Hevea latex will 
only coagulate when acidity is set up. Whether this acidity 
is imparted to the milk by means of fumes and vapour or by 
an admixture of acid in liquid form can hardly have any serious 
influence on the fibre and nerve of the resulting rubber unless 
excess of acid is used. 
The Brazilian Government is said quite recently to have 
voted a substantial prize or subsidy to a gentleman who has, 
after years of study, devised a means of preparing Brazilian 
rubber by a scientific process. The essence of this invention, 
according to accounts of it which have appeared in the press, 
is to do away entirely with the use of smoke in coagulation; 
yet every day almost one hears of the machine having been 
invented, either here or in the East, which will coagulate latex 
by the direct agency of smoke. 
One is constantly asked by planters, ‘‘ Why do not the 
manufacturers tell us what they really want?’’ One feels 
tempted to reply that it is the planter who has taught and is 
teaching the manufacturer what he should use, and who has 
given the manufacturer a product remarkable for its dryness, 
purity and colour such as was previously undreamt of. The 
user of rubber in the past had perforce to buy his raw supplies 
in a dirty, wet, and often putrified condition, and laboriously 
to clean and prepare them at considerable expense before they 
were in a fit state for use. 
It is obvious that the Eastern industry has enormous 
economic advantages over all wild rubber areas, and it is 
equally true that in some departments these advantages are 
only now beginning to be realized and made use of. We have 
