A vegetable gummy product has lately been introduced to the trade which has been found to give remarkable results when used in conjunction with tanning materials. This gummy matter is extracted from vegetable seeds and is placed on the market under the name of Tragasol. Its composition is somewhat similar to that of tannins, the Tragasol Co.'s analysis showing it to contain 43.51 per cent, of carbon, 6.23 per cent. of hydrogen, 48.38 per cent. of oxygen, 0.39 per cent. of nitrogen, and 1.49 per cent. of ash. It is very largely used for strengthening and sizing textile fabrics, and seems destined to play an important part in the leather trade, for it has tanning properties, increases the strength of the leather, and considerably hastens the process. Its most important advantage is that it permits successful tannage in the drum, thus effecting a great saving of time and labour. Hitherto, rapid tannages have not been very successful, as they generally made the leather harsh and brittle, and lessened its durability. Leather tanned by previous rapid methods was also less waterproof than that tanned in pits by slow methods. All these defects are avoided by using Tragasol, which, when combined with tanning extracts, forms a curdy precipitate, described by the makers of Tragasol as cutiloid (contraction of cutis and colloid, cutis meaning "skin," and the Tragasol being, chemically, a colloid). The cutiloid tannage increases the water-resistant properties of leather, and prevents the oxidation and consequent darkening of the colour of the tanning material used with it. Tests have been made which show that cutiloid-tanned leather will withstand a fall of water 12 in. high for six weeks before complete penetration takes place; ordinary tannages do not often resist water for more than a few hours. For the tannage of sole leather in the drum by the cutiloid process, about 120 per cent. of Tragasol and 40 per cent. of chestnut or oakwood extract are required; this quantity is divided into four equal portions, which are added to the drum successively at intervals of one hour. The hides should then be nearly tanned through, and the process is completed with strong extract (chestnut and quebracho, or myrobalans, according to the kind of leather required). After drumming the hides for ten hours, they should remain at rest for two hours, then drummed another hour, and so on, alternately, until the completion of the process, which may require from twenty-four to thirty-six hours, according to the substance of the hides. By this process, the yield of leather may exceed 60 per cent. of the weight of the raw pelts. This percentage of yield may be raised to 70 per cent. or more in the case of sole leather by steeping the hides in hot extract.