SANTALACE^. 235 



is now shaken witli ether, and the ether evaporated, the resinous 



Blatter 



o 



«f sandalwood. This substance in contact A^'ith concentrated 

 sulphuric acid affords the same yellow-brown and red colours as 

 pure oil of sandalwood, M. Mehu has also observed that the 

 pure sandal oil does not communicate a violet odour to i^xo urine, 

 as is the case when the oil is adulterated ^vith copaiba and tur- 

 pentine. {Journ de Pharm. et cU Chim,, Sept. 1st, 1886.) The 

 fact of a resin being precipitated by acids from the urine in 

 cases in which sandalwood oil lias been adminis tcred, has 



therefore to be remembered in testing for albumen with nitric 

 acid. 



Description. — Sandalwood logs are about a yard in length 



and 5 to 6 inches in diameter ; they are stiipped of the bark 

 and a portion of the sapwood. Andreas Petersen of Copen- 

 hagen, who made in 1886 a very careful investigation of the 

 wood, says: — ''It is very homogeneous, rather hard and pon- 

 derous, although it does not sink in water. The heartwood is 

 pale reddish, with darker reddish-brown and brighter yellowish 

 concentric zones, which, when examined under the microscope, 

 prove to be annual rings. In the inner part of the wood they 



as 



seven millimetres. Possibly, therefore, they do not correspond 

 to one year's growth, but to that of a longer period. 



" The transverse section, examined by means of a lens, dis- 

 plays the numerous narrow medullary rays ; the vessels are 

 partly empty, partly loaded with yellow resin. In the bright 

 yellowish sapwood both vessels and medullary rays are lesa 

 distinct. The sapwood is scentless, whereas the heartwood, 

 especially when freshly cut, is in a high degree possessed of 



the very agreeable and remarkably persistent odour of sandal 

 oil. 



'' The miseroscope shows the prevailing part of the tissue of the 

 wood to be made up of ligneous fibres (libriform), the thick walls 

 of which are marked with small annular pits (behofte Tiipfel). 

 The woody tissue is traversed by medullary rays consisting of 



