ON GUTTA PERCHA, &C. 457 
The retirement will be that of the grade the veterinary sur- 
geon shall have acquired the rank of, at the time of quitting the 
service. 
*** At the time the above was passing through the press, 
it came to our knowledge that the Secretary at War has not 
only given the plan his sanction, but has so far modified it as to 
place the whole body of veterinary surgeons on the etat major ; 
that the board have accepted these alterations ; and that the same 
were immediately introduced into the original plan, which 
had just been officially laid before the National Assembly. 
Recueil de Med. Vet. February 1851. 
Home Extracts. 
ON GUTTA PERCHA, CAOUTCHOUC, AND THE MILKY 
JUICE OF FICUS ELASTICA. 
By Dr. A. Adriani. 
The tree which yields the gutta percha has repeatedly been 
described by the name of Isonandra Gutta (see Pharmaceutical 
Journal, vol. vii, p. 179), specimens of which are to be seen in 
the Botanical Garden at Kew. The manner in which gutta 
percha is obtained is likely to exterminate entirely this plant in 
the course of time. The trees, which reach a height of from 
forty to sixty feet, and a diameter of three to six feet, are cut 
down close to the root, the bark peeled off, and the milky juice 
collected in pieces of bamboo-cane, cocoa-nut shells, &c. The 
milky juice is then inspissated by boiling, or, according to other 
reports, dried by exposure to the air. At an average, ten trees 
are required to obtain one picul 61.513 kilogrammes of gutta ; 
-69180 trees were therefore required to collect the 6918 piculs 
which, during the three years of 1845 to 1847, were exported 
from Sincapore alone. 
The caoutchouc is gathered with greater care ; Edwards re- 
ports that two gallons of the caoutchouc milky juice were col- 
lected from 120 trees, and this could be repeated during many 
months. The milky juice of Isonandra Gutta appears never 
to have been imported to Europe until now. The chief trade 
in gutta percha is at Sincapore. It is carried on by the 
Chinese, who adulterate it with a valueless juice of a tree, 
called Getafi Melabeoya, which they import from Palembang. 
