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from it; wliether our views be confined to the narrow limit 
of worldly interests, or extended to those which exalt the mind 
to better considerations. In several parts of the European 
continent natural history is a study of the schools; hence 
it has been that we owe to our continental neighbours the dis- 
covery of many useful products, particularly in connection with 
medicine. The discovery of that most important material, 
India Rubber, has added much to our comforts; and as the 
milky sap of the tree which forms it, may for ages to come have 
passed unnoticed, it is but reasonable to infer that useful 
properties may, sooner or later, according to the activity of 
our researches, be discovered in numerous others, capable of 
administering to our pleasures or our necessities. 
That our readers may be informed of the simple mode adopted 
by an uncultivated people, to administer to their comforts, we 
will copy a communication from the Brazils, to an American 
journal : — 
“The Caoutchouc tree grows, in general, to the height of 40 
or 50 feet without branches, then branching, runs up 15 feet 
higher. The leaf is about six inches long, thin, and shaped 
like that of a peach tree. The trees show their working by the 
number of knots, or bunches made by tapping; and a singular 
fact is, that, like a cow, when most tapped, they give most milk 
or sap. As the time of operating is early day, before sunrise we 
were at hand. The blacks are first sent through the forest, 
armed with a quantity of soft clay, and a small pickaxe. On 
coming to one of the trees, a portion of the soft clay is formed 
into a cup and stuck to the trunk. The black then striking his 
pick over the cup, the sap oozes out slowly, a tree giving daily 
about a gill. The tapper continues in this way, tapping per- 
haps fifty trees, when he returns, and with a jar, passing over 
the same ground, empties his cups. So by seven o’clock the 
blacks came in with their jars, ready for working. The sap at 
this stage resembles milk in appearance, and somewhat in taste. 
It is also frequently drunk with perfect safety. If left standing 
now it will curdle like milk, disengaging a watery substance 
like whey. Shoe makers now arrange themselves to form the 
gum. Seated in the shade, with a large pan of milk on one 
side, and on the other a flagon, in which is burned a nut pecu- 
liar to this country, emitting a dense smoke, the operator having 
