CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 223 



pound artificially in his laboratory. Commercial enterprise lias 

 availed itself of this fact, and sent to the exhibition in the form of 

 essences, perfumes thus prepared. Singularly enough, they are gen- 

 erally derived from substances of intensely disgusting odor. 

 A peculiarly fetid oil, termed " fusel oil," is formed in making brandy 

 and whisky. This fusil oil, distilled with sulphuric acid, and acetate 

 of potash, gives the oil of pears. The oil of apples is made from the 

 same fusel oil, by distillation^with sulphuric acid and bichromate of 

 potash. The oil of pine apples is obtained from a product of the 

 action of putrid cheese on sugar, or by making a soap with butter, and 

 distilling it with alcohol and sulphuric acid, and is now largely employed 

 in England in the preparation of the pine apple ale. Oil of grapes 

 and oil of cognac, used to impart the flavor of French cognac to Brit- 

 ish brandy, are little else than fusel oil. The artificial oil of bitter 

 almonds now so largely employed in perfuming soap, and for flavor- 

 ing confectionery, is prepared by the action of nitric acid on the fetid 

 oils of gas tar. Many a fair forehead is damped with eau de mille- 

 fleurs, without knowing that its essential ingredient is derived from 

 the drainage of cow houses. The wintergreen oil, imported from New 

 Jersey, being produced from a plant indigenous there, is artificially 

 made from willows, and a body procured in the distillation of wood. 

 All these are direct modern appliances of science to an industrial pur- 

 pose, and imply an acquaintance with the highest investigations of 

 organic chemistry. Let us recollect that the oil of lemons, turpentine, 

 oil of Juniper, oil of roses, oil of copaiba, oil of rosemary, and many 

 other oils, are identical in composition ; and it is not difficult to con- 

 ceive that perfumery may derive still further aid from chemistry. 



Prof. Fehling, in the Wurtemberg Journal of Industry, gives the 

 following abstract of what is at present generally known respecting 

 the composition and production of some of the artificial extracts of 

 fruit. He says : 



Amongst the chemical preparations exposed at the London Exhibi- 

 tion, the artificial extracts of fruits were particularly deserving of 

 attention. Although some of these extracts, as, for instance, butyric 

 ether, have already found applications, their use has been hitherto 

 only on a very limited scale. It is now, however, no longer % to be 

 doubted but that the majority of our artificial organic compositions 

 will, ere long, be extensively applied, and their practical applications 

 cannot but have a very stimulating effect on the study of organic 

 chemistry, which will again most probably lead to the discovery of 

 technical applications for the new organic compositions, which the 

 investigations of our modern chemists have furnished us with. Among 

 the extracts of fruit exhibited by a London manufacturer, those which 

 more particularly attracted attention were pine apple oil, bergamot 

 pear oil, apple oil, grape oil, cognac oil, &c. Several of these oils 

 have been analyzed by M. Faiszt, of Stuttgardt. We give here a 

 succinct description of some of these extracts, and of their manu- 

 facture. 



Pine Apple OIL This product consists of a solution of 1 part of 

 20 



