Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/378

 [Vol. v.. No. IKt^

��view that must be eKsentislIy imaginary, — a, methoti of illustration that is unfortunately too common in works on geoEraphy.

— As the restilt of a series of observations made at serenteen forest meteorological atationa lu Prussia, Professor Muttricb baa arrived at certain definite eonelusions respecting the influence of the forest on temperature, wfalcb may t>e stated as follows; 1, The forest exercised a positive influence on the tempera- tureof the air; 2. ThedailyvMlations of temperature were lessened by the forest, and In siimmermore than

��given concerning the wastn resulting from tliia prt>- 1 cess. By actual experiment, Mr. Wray has found, Qrst, that the wet bark which is now allowed to rot in the jungle contains fully 5.7% of its weight o( gutta-percha, or, when dried, 11.4 %; and secondly, that, by simply pounding and boiling the bark, nearly all this gum may be extracted. From the tnuilc of a tree, which he estimated to weigh 530 pounds in a wet state, he obtained but twelve ounces of gutta- percha by the ordinary Malay method, wbereae, by bulling, 28 pounds more can he obtained; that is.

����n winter; 8. The influence of the leafy forest was in

r greater than that of the pine-forest, white


 * r the tempering Influence of the pine-forest

preponderated over that of the disfoliaged forest.

An attempt to determine the Influence of the forest

D annual temperature led to no sure re-

/ the present method of extracting gutta- percha, practised by the native Malayans, the tree is cut down, and the bark slit at various iutervala. and, after the g<im which exudes is removed, the tree is allowed to rot in the jungles. From a paper by Mr. J. L. Wray, Jun., curator of the Perak museum, pub- lished in the Journal of the Straits settlements branch of the BoyH Asiatic society, some startling facta are

��for every pound collected, 87 pounds is stated that the export of gutta-percha from t Straits settlements and peninsula in 1S75 rei the total weight of 10,000,000 pounds. From tJ wilt be seen that there was no leis than 300,000,001 pounds actually wasted, which represents £3T,500,0( sterling. This estimate only Includes the t whereas the branches, and even the leaves, c( the gum. Such a wholesale wasle of a material » vastly important to the world should be i prevented If possible; and the <)ueBtioii ni arises, Can the bark be broken from the tre dealt with in the country, or can it be d sent to Europe to he worked over so as to be a mercial success?

��e dried t

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