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SOUEOES OF COMMERCIAL INDIA-^RUBBER. 



By Dr. Morris, C.M.G. 



Cantor Lbctures. Socibty or Arts. 



Lecture I. delivered April ISth, Summary by the Lecturer. 



Since the days when Le Condamine firit described the rubber tree of 

 Brazil and Don Jose, King of Portugal, in 1755 stnt several pairi of 

 his royal boots to Para in order that they might be covered with the 

 water-proof " gum-elastic," the use of India-rubber has enormously 

 increased. Besides the demand in almost every department of arts and 

 manufactures the rapid development of cycling and of the use of rubber 

 tyres for carriage wheels has added largely to the increased consumption 

 of this interesting article. The quantity of raw Caoutchouc imported 

 into the United Kingdom in 1830 was only 23 tons. Even in the ytar 

 of the accession of our Queen it was only about 200 tons. Last year it 

 had increased to 20,000 tons— exactly a hundred fold. ii^m^^M 



The present value of the imports are about 5 million sterling. The 

 total trade is probably not less than 10 million sterling. More than 

 one-third of the imports is now received from British Possessions. In 

 1888 only about one-fifth was so received. It is estimated that the 

 world's consumption of rubber is 60,000 tons, of the value of 14 

 millions sterling. This stupendous quantity of raw material is labour- 

 iously extracted from the milky juice of trees and shrubs belonging to 

 three natural orders viz., the Spurges (Euphorbiacece), the Nettles 

 x(Urticacece) and the Dogbanes (Apocynacece.) These plants are dis- 

 tributed ovtr nearly every part of the tropical zone — none are found in 

 the temperate zones — the most important bein j found in the vast basin 

 of the Amazon, an area almost as large as that of the Continent of 

 Europe ; others are found on the East and West Coasts of Africa, in 

 Assam and the Malay Archipelago. 



Hitherto the preparation of India-rubber has depended upon the 

 crude hereditary art of a semi- savage people, the rubber-hunters, who 

 explore the depths of tropical forests and obtain the rubber milk at the 

 sacrifice of millions of trees, which owing to the recklessness with which 

 they have been treated are yearly decreasing. 



The result is that many localities where rubber was once abundantly 

 obtained have almost ceased to produce it. New sources of supply have, 

 it is true, been found in West Africa, especially in Lagos, the Congo 

 State and Portugese south-west Africa. But here also the work of 

 destruction is rapidly going on. The collectors have to go further and 

 further into the interior and the cost of transit is thereby greatly in- 

 creased. An account was given by the Lecturer of an important discovery 

 whereby rubber could be extracted from the milk in a perfectly pure 

 state. This is a mechanical contrivance on the principle of a cream 

 separator. This was likely to prove of great value in the preparation 

 of Central America and some West- African rubbers where the milk 

 flows in an apprtciable quantity and it capable of being brought in by 



