May 31, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
965 
with the view of aiding those who attempt to gain some¬ 
thing more than a mere book-knowledge of the subject, by 
studying the organs themselves. The new woodcuts are 
good, and most of the old ones are still fair; but some of the 
blocks are beginning to show signs of wear from the nu¬ 
merous impressions which have been taken from them. 
This is especially evident in fig. 41. The type is not nearly 
so clear, nor the paper so good, in this edition as in the 
second, and the page is so much broader, that the eye 
cannot take in the whole of a line at a glance, as was the 
case in the other. We hope that in the next edition the 
publishers will return to the old type, size of page, and 
quality of paper, as they will thereby add greatly to the 
comfort, and, we believe, also to the profit of the readers. 
Mr. Pilter’s work is in the main an abstract of Professor 
Huxley’s, and like most abstracts is rather dry. It con¬ 
tains, however, some notes of the methods of performing 
certain experiments, such as dissecting the eye, etc., which 
may prove useful to those who are trying to become prac¬ 
tically acquainted with the elements of physiology. 
Report on the Caoutchouc of Commerce; being In¬ 
formation on the Plants yielding it, their Geographical 
Distribution, Climatic Conditions, and the Possibility 
of their Cultivation and Acclimatization in India. By 
James Collins, F.B.S. Ed., etc. With a Memorandum 
on the^same subject by Dr. Brandis, Inspector-General 
of Forests to the Government of India. Printed by 
order of Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in 
Council. London. 1872. (Pp. xii. 55; 2 maps and 4 
plates.) 
A milky latex, which, when dried, possesses the peculiar 
elasticity of india-rubber, is a somewhat scarce produc¬ 
tion, at all events in sufficient abundance to render its 
collection profitable. It occurs only in the bark of certain 
trees and shrubs in the tropics, each great tropical region 
having some caoutchouc-producing species. It is very re¬ 
markable that a substance apparently identical in proper¬ 
ties, if not in chemical composition, should be afforded by, 
so far as is known, a few isolated plants, all included in 
the three natural orders Euphorbiacece, Apocynacece, and 
Artocarpacece, groups the structural affinities of which are 
of the slightest kind. 
The author of this ‘ Report’ is well known to have paid 
considerable attention to both the commercial and bota¬ 
nical relationships of caoutchouc. In 1868 he published 
a useful paper in the ‘ Journal of Botany,’ then conducted 
by the late Dr. Seemann, who was greatly interested in 
the economic value of plants, and this was extended in the 
next year into an elaborate account of the whole subject 
read before the Society of Arts. The Indian Government 
have therefore been well advised in their selection, and 
have indeed secured a very comprehensive and suggestive 
Report, forming, probably, the best single account of the 
subject yet published. 
The chief, if not the only, source of the caoutchouc at 
present obtained from our Indian possessions is the Ficus 
clastica, Roxb. This tree grows wild in the Himalayas, 
especially in, the rich, moist valleys of the Assam district 
whence it is exported : the distribution of the tree in this 
district is well exhibited on one of the maps accompanying 
the * Report.’ “ Assam rubber,” however, fetches but a low 
price in the market compared with the South American 
kinds yielded by various species of Hevea. This is largely 
due to the very faulty method of collecting, which allows 
the juice to become mingled with much bark, sand, and 
clay. Little or no control has been exercised over the 
collectors, and the result of the reckless and improvident 
way in which the cutting or tapping of the trees has 
been practised is, that they have been destroyed in 
thousands, and, unless artificial planting be carried out, 
will become exterminated in large districts. Systematic 
cultivation has been already recommended by Mr. Gustav 
Mann in the ‘ Report of Forest Administration in Bengal 
for 1868-69,’ and is strongly insisted upon by the author, 
who also here gives various useful directions as regards 
the best methods of tapping the trees. To obtain a full 
flow of juice it is not necessary to cut deeper than into 
the middle layer of the bark, where the laticiferous canals 
ramify; deeper cutting injures the trees. 
In addition to Ficus clastica , the introduction of as 
many other caoutchouc-producing trees as possible is re¬ 
commended, so that it may be determined which are most 
suitable for cultivation in the Indian climate. As bearing 
upon this point, the ‘ Report ’ contains a full account of 
all the important sources of the substance, arranged under 
the three natural orders above mentioned. The botanical 
synonymy and the distribution of each are given, as well 
as details of the climate of the districts in which the best 
sorts are found. The distribution of the trees over the 
globe is clearly exhibited by a coloured map, and the 
‘ Report ’ is further adorned by four plates by Mr. Blair, 
representing Hevea brasiliensis, the chief source of “Para.” 
caoutchouc ; Castilloa clastica , which yields the “ Guaya¬ 
quil ” or Ecuador sort; Landolphia ovciriensis, whence 
the “West Coast” (Angola) kind is procured; and Cas¬ 
tilloa Markhamiana, a new species, found by Hayes in 
Panama, and appropriately dedicated by the author to 
Mr. C. B. Markham, of the India Office. The plates have 
had the advantage of the supervision of Mr. Carruthers, 
of the British Museum. The Madagascar variety, which 
has taken a good position in the market, is afforded by 
species of Vahea, and the same natural family ( Apocynacece ) 
gives caoutchouc in America from Hancornia speciosa, etc., 
and in Asia from Urceola elcistica and Willoughbeia edulis. 
Mr. Collins’s ‘ Report ’ is supplemented by a memoran¬ 
dum by Dr. Brandis, which thoroughly seconds all his 
recommendations. 
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Ani¬ 
mals. By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S., etc. Lon¬ 
don : John Murray. 
In this literary age, when books are produced in shoals 
by a process which seems to be growing ever more mecha¬ 
nical and less personal, so as to require a minimum of 
thinking and a maximum of writing, it is very delightful 
to meet with a work which is based upon thirty-four years’ 
more or less active observation and thought by a man of 
singular mental power. One of the most striking charac¬ 
teristics of Mr. Darwin’s book is the wonderful wealth of 
data collected from the most varied sources. A catalogue 
of the authorities quoted would be a formidable list, as 
there is hardly a page which has not at its foot several 
references to the writings and observations of others. 
Mr. Darwin’s plan of study was, as stated in his intro¬ 
ductory chapter, firstly, to observe the emotions as exhi¬ 
bited by infants; secondly, by the insane, because in these 
cases conventional restraint does not interfere; thirdly, 
to exhibit photographs of artificial expressions, obtained 
by acting upon the various muscles by galvanism, to a 
number of persons without explanation, and' obtain their 
unbiassed opinion as to the emotions expressed; fourthly, 
to study pictures and sculpture ; fifthly, to obtain replies 
to a number of queries from observers living amidst 
isolated races of men; and lastly, to closely watch the 
lower animals. 
He enunciates as the result of his inquiry, three general 
principles of expression which he considers fundamental. 
These are, first, “ that movements ■which are serviceable in 
gratifying some desire, or in relieving some sensation, if 
often repeated, become so habitual that they are performed, 
whether or not of any service, whenever the same desire 
or sensation is felt, even in a very weak degree;” second, 
“if certain actions have been regularly performed 
under a certain frame of mind, there ■will be a strong and 
involuntary tendency to the performance of directly oppo¬ 
site actions .... under the excitement of an opposite 
frame of mind;” third, “ that certain actions, which we 
recognize as expressive of certain states of the mind, are the 
direct result of the constitution of the nervous system . . . . ’ 
