Originally Posted by rpenmanparker

Seriously, the way to prove it one way or the other is to try to bond two pieces of latex tube together with "vulcanizing" fluid and no patch. If it works, you are right. If it doesn't, I am right. There is a chance that some small amount of excess vulcanizing agent in the latex tubes could be activated by the fluid and produce a bond, thereby clouding the issue further, but I doubt it.