62 



THE ALUMNI JOURNAL. 



carefully examined, so as to see whether 

 they are completely dissolved, and have 

 been vv^ell stirred. About 200 grammes 

 of the oil should then be taken from the 

 tin, poured into a bottle and an accurate- 

 ly marked thermometer, graduated, at 

 least to half degrees, placed into this 

 sample. The sample is then cooled 

 down to about 5° C. by placing the bot- 

 tle in broken ice or in icewater. During 

 the process of cooling care should be 

 taken to avoid shaking the bottle or 

 moving the thermometer, as this might 

 cause the crystallizing process to set in 

 prematurely. When the oil has cooled 

 down to 5° C. it is made to crystallize 

 either by adding to it a little crystallized 

 star-anise oil or by scratching the side 

 of the bottle with the thermometer. 

 While solidification is proceeding, the oil 

 should be steadily stirred, in order to ex- 

 pedite the freezing process. In the course 

 of the process the temperature rises 

 rapidly, and the point at which the mer- 

 cury-column ceases to rise should be 

 noted. This is the freezing point." The 

 mean freezing point is considered 16° C, 

 the highest observed was 17.50 and the 

 lowest 14°. 



Oil of Tansy has acquired a fresh im- 

 portance as being the best source of thu- 

 jone (tanacetone). 



The following resume of the occurrence 

 of Salicylate of Methyl in the vegetable 

 kingdom is of great value : 



"Salicylate of methyl has recently 

 been detected by E. Bourquelot {Comptes 

 rendus, 119, 802) in the root of Polygala 

 vulgaris L,., P. depressa Wender, and P. 

 calcarea Schulz, as well as in the stalks 

 of Monotropa hypopitys L. Bourquelot 

 considers it probable that, as is also the 

 case with the bark of Betula lenta, the 

 ester is not present in the above men- 

 tioned plants in the free state, but is 

 formed by the action of a ferment upon a 

 body analogous to Proster's Gaultheria. 



"Salicylate of methyl appears to occur 

 rather frequently in the vegetable king- 

 dom ; so far as we are aware it has up to 

 the present been found in :* 



Gaultheria procumbens L- (flowers and 

 leaves) — Cahoins, 1843. 



Gaultheria punctata Blume (flowers 

 and leaves) — De Vrij , 1871. 



Gaultheria leucocarpa Blume (flowers 

 and leaves) — De Vrij, 1871. 



Gaultheria Leschenaultii D. C. (flow- 

 ers and leaves) — Broughton, 1876. 



Betulalenta Willd (bark)— /'r^f/^r, 1844 



Polygala Senega ly. (root) — Langbeck^ 

 1881. 



Polygala alba (root) — Renter, 1889. 



Polygala vulgaris (root) — Bourquelot, 

 1894. 



Polypala depressa Wender (root) — 

 Bourquelot, 1894. 



Polygala calcarea F. Schulz (root) — 

 Bourquelot, 1894. 



Monotropa hypopitys (stalk) — Bour- 

 quelot, 1894. 



lyaurus Benzoin (bark) — Schimmel & 

 Co., 1885. 



Spiraea Ulmaria L. (flowers) — Schnee- 

 gans and Ge^'ock, 1892." 



The position of the artificial article is 

 thus stated : 



"Synthetic wintergreen oil, however, 

 has given a death-blow to the natural 

 article. Even the most bigoted opponents 

 of synthetical preparations cannot deny 

 that pure methyl-salicylate is a perfect 

 substitute for the natural oil, nor have 

 all attempts to discredit the artificial oil 

 been able to prevent it from finding em- 

 ployment and recognition everywhere. 

 The price has been depressed to its lowest 

 possible limit by competition." 



In this abstract I have endeavored to 

 give only the more important generaliza- 

 tions of the report. The entire work is 

 crowded with other valuable matter 

 which want of space forbids our repro- 

 ducing^ 



*This list might be considerably extended. 



