In Evelyn’s time (1664) cork was much used by old persons for linings to the soles of their shoes, whence the German name for it, “Pantoffelholtz” or slipper wood. The Venetian dames, Evelyn says, used it for their choppings or high-heeled shoes to make them appear taller than nature intended they should be. The poor of Spain lay planks of cork by their bedside to tread on instead of carpets. Sometimes they line the inside of their houses, built with stone, with this bark, which renders them very warm and corrects the moisture of the air. Loudon relates that in the celebrated convent at Cintra, Portugal, several articles of furniture are made of this tree. Virgin cork, or the first bark of the tree, is now very much used for window flower boxes, grottoes, etc., while the subsequent grades are used for small architectural and geognostic models. Cork was formerly employed in medicine even as far back as the time of Pliny, as he tells us that the bark of the cork tree, pulverized and taken in warm water, arrests hemorrhage at the mouth and nostrils, and the ashes of it taken in warm wine are highly extolled as a cure for spitting blood (see Pliny, “Nat. Hist.” b. 124). In modern time powdered cork has been applied as a styptic and hung about the necks of nurses. It was thought to possess the power of stopping the secretion of milk. Burnt cork mixed with sugar of lead has been used as an application to piles. See Pereira’s “Materia Medica.” Ground cork and India rubber formed the basis of Kamptulicon, the soft unresounding material which covered the floor of the reading rooms of the British Museum.” In further describing the many uses to which cork is applied, reference is made to the résumé of Mr. Good in “La Nature,” which is incorporated with a few slight changes. “The various applications of cork that we are now going to pass in review are worthy of description, as each of such applications has its _raison d’être_ in one or more of the physical or chemical properties of cork bark. The manufacture of stoppers utilizes, in the first place, the impermeability of the bark, and, in the second, the latter’s elasticity and imputrescibility, the remarkable lightness playing no rôle therein. Before entering upon a study of the industrial applications of cork, in grouping them according to the various qualities of this product, we must return to the “male” cork, derived from the first barking of the tree. It has been said, because of its slight elasticity and numerous fissures, this product has but little commercial value, and shall have mentioned its principal application when we have stated that it is used in the decoration of parks and gardens. An endeavor has been made, but without success, to manufacture from it, mills for decorticating rice.