Caoutchouc. -Gum elastic or India-rubber. -Caoutchouc, French; Federharz, German. -This substance was introduced in the beginning of the last century in the shape of bottles; and its chief use for a considerable period was confined to erasing the streak of black-lead pencils on paper. It was brought from America; but very little was known of its history till the publication of M.De La Condamine's account of it in the Transactions of the French Academy in 1736.