March 2, 1872.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
715 
And where the giants of the forests 
“ yclad with sommer’s pride 
Did spread so broad, that heaven’s light did hide, 
Nor perceable with power of any starr.” 
And nature is marked everywhere by mutual relations 
and adaptations, thus producing a beautiful harmony, 
which on the approach of man is changed into discord. 
His steps are marked by the restriction or destruction of 
indigenous forms of life, vegetable and animal, which 
are supplanted by others of foreign origin. Of the 
various stages of man’s social progress, the pastoral and 
agricultural conditions are the most destructive to forest 
products. The sound of the axe is heard; fire encircles 
the trunks of many a tree, for fire is said to improve the 
soil; and a clearing is made, which is soon covered with 
a different and frequently aggressive form of vegetation. 
Soon, through slovenly husbandry, the first portion of 
land is exhausted, and the process of destruction is re¬ 
peated by the removal of further portions of forest which 
hem them in. The spontaneous products formerly at 
their very doors have now to be sought far away, or, if 
they have representatives nearer, they are reduced to 
struggling weeds. Of this tenacity of locality, and 
degradation, as it were, under man’s influence, I had a 
remarkable instance given me by a traveller. He had 
been endeavouring to find the source of a vegetable 
product, and had thoroughly examined the outskirts of 
the settlement where he was staying; but the only plant 
that he deemed, from its generic position, could yield it, 
•existed only as a weak growing tender climber, and it 
was only after seeing the plant fully developed, away 
from the influence of man, that he could verify his 
surmises. 
As an illustration of the truth of the axiom, that we 
cannot depend upon spontaneous forest growth for a 
regular and lasting supply of any product in consider¬ 
able demand, I may refer to two important substances, 
viz. india-rubber and cinchona. In the one case, the 
present sources of supply are being rapidly exhausted 
through the ignorance of native collectors; and, in the 
other, the resources of the science of economic botany 
have placed us in a far higher position than we were, 
not only rendering us independent of native collection, 
but promising much more plentiful supplies. 
Through the kindness of a correspondent, M. Paul 
Levy, who is practically acquainted with the subject, I 
am enabled to give you an account of the collection of 
india-rubber, which will serve very well to convey a 
general idea of how forest products are collected, and 
also to illustrate a few points to which I wish to draw 
your attention :—“ To those who are unacquainted with 
the forests of intertropical America, the obstacles there 
met with are incomprehensible. The traveller finds 
an inextricable confusion of vegetation, covered with 
vCreepers, through which a day’s hard labour will not 
secure the advance of a hundred feet. Now, a straggling 
and slimy marsh, out of which he is only with difficulty 
able to extricate himself; next, an insurmountable 
xavine, which it is necessary to flank, thus tripling the 
amount of labour. Add to these the perpetual fear of 
wild beasts, and the frequent want of water, and then 
judge of what passes in the mind of the poor hulero , who, 
after many of such risks and much labour, arrives at the 
foot of a tree he has seen from afar, and discovers it is not 
what he seeks. Besides the qualities required in a hulero 
to enable him to find his way in an obscure forest, it is 
necessary for him to serve an apprenticeship to learn 
how to property bleed a tree; that is to say, to extract 
as much milk as possible from the tree without killing 
it. With respect to killing it, however, he is not at all 
particular. Near the towns, all the trees along the road¬ 
sides are marked by scars made by amateur haler os, and 
present strange, exaggerated forms. The forests are full 
>of these attempts, by which, in ten years, the most beau¬ 
tiful trees within a circle of many leagues of the rancho 
of a would-be Indian hulero are frequently destroyed. 
It is to this cause alone that the blighted appearance of 
the forests of the inhabited part of Nicaragua is due. 
The cut with the machete, to be successful, must pene¬ 
trate at one blow through the bark without touching the 
wood, otherwise the tree is destroyed; and; from the 
difficulty of handling the machete, and the carelessness 
of the huleros, caoutchouc trees are destroyed with fear¬ 
ful rapidity. The hulero, having collected his rubber, 
returns to the towns to dispose of it, where he is subject 
to great wrongs from the small traders, nearly uni¬ 
versally a very low class. When the price has at last 
been agreed upon, the hulero finds that the greater por¬ 
tion is already owing for his outfit and spirit score, and 
frequently the trader does not part with him till the 
small balance is expended in debauchery and drink. 
Full of revengeful feeling, the cheated, hardly-dealt-with 
hulero departs, and destroys all the trees he meets with 
on his road. The contract between a party of huleros 
and an agent is made after quite a patriarchal fashion. 
They regard each other seriously, strike hands, and the 
bargain is completed. It is to the agent that applica¬ 
tion is made to secure the active and armed resistance of 
the huleros in case of a revolution. He generally suc¬ 
ceeds in engaging them in the civil war by means of a 
good bounty, a high rate of pay, a considerable equip¬ 
ment, and a more handsome dress than that of the other 
soldiers.” 
{To be continued.) 
Itolianuntarg anir fnrmtags. 
A BILL TO AMEND THE LAW FOR THE 
PREVENTION OF ADULTERATION OF FOOD 
AND DRINK AND OF DRUGS. 
(Prepared and brought in by Mr. Muntz, Mr. Whit well, 
and Mr. Dixon.) 
Whereas the practice of adulterating articles of food 
and drink and drugs for sale, in fraud of her Majesty’s 
subjects, and to the great hurt of their health and dan¬ 
ger to their lives, requires to be repressed by more effec¬ 
tual laws than those which are now in force for that 
purpose: 
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent 
Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this 
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of 
the same, as follows : 
1. Every person who shall wilfully admix, and every 
person who shall order any other person or persons to 
admix, with any article of food or drink, any injurious 
or poisonous ingredient or material to adulterate the 
same for sale, and every person who shall wilfully ad¬ 
mix, and every person who shall order any other person 
or persons to admix, any ingredient or material with any 
drug to adulterate the same for sale, shall for the first 
offence forfeit and pay a penalty not exceeding fifty 
pounds, together with the costs attending such convic¬ 
tion, and for the second offence shall be guilty of a mis¬ 
demeanour, and be imprisoned for a period not exceeding 
six calendar months, with hard labour. 
2. Every person who shall sell any article of food or 
drink with which to the knowledge of such person any 
ingredient or material injurious to the health of persons 
eating or drinking such article has been mixed, and 
every person who shall sell as pure and unadulterated 
any article of food or drink, or any drug which is adul¬ 
terated or not pure, shall for every such offence, on a 
summary conviction of the same before two justices of 
the peace at petty sessions in England, and in Scotland 
before two justices of the peace in the justice of the 
peace court, or before the sheriff substitute of the county, 
or before justices at petty sessions or a divisional justice 
in Ireland, forfeit and pay a penalty not exceeding 
twenty pounds, together with such costs attending such 
