246 ^ SANTALACE^. 



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heartwood is cut into small chips, and distillation is slowly 

 carried on for ten days and nights, bj which time the whole of 

 the oil is extracted. As the water from time to time gets low in 

 the still, fresh supplies are added from the heated contents of 

 the refrigerator. The quantity of oil yielded by wood of good 

 quality is at the rate of 10 ozs. per maund, or 2*5 per cent. 

 It is transparent and of a pale yellow colour, and has a resinous 

 taste and sweet peculiar smell, w^hich is best appreciated by 

 rubbing a few drops of the oil on the warm hand. Its specific 

 gravity is about 0'9S0. [Bidic.) The average price in India is 

 about Rs, 8 per lb. 



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From Mr. EusselFs report we learn that recently Messrs. F. 

 Smith, of Bangalore, and W. F. Petrie Hay, of Hunsur, have, 

 with permission, been, making experimental distillations. Their 

 samples were cleai*and good, but it has been brought to notice 

 that the use of iced-strainers w^ould be necessary to prevent the 

 oil becoming thick or cloudy when expoi'ted to colder regions. 



False Sandahcoods of Eastern Commerce. — The wood of 

 Santalum Preissii (Soutli Australian sandahyood) is dark- 

 brown in colour, with unusually close tenacious texture, and 

 extraordinarily hard and heavy. It is much sought for in 

 China, where the oil is used for medicinal purposes and to 

 jj^rfume soaps. Messrs. Schimmel & Co. distilled 75 kilos of 

 the wood and obtained 3 kilos, 800 grams, of oil. The wood, 

 therefore, is one of the richest sandalwoods for oil. In many 

 respects the latter is characteristic and interesting; it is 

 viscid, of a cherry- red colour, and specifically heavier than 

 water. At 15° C. its sp. gr. is 1-022. The oil possesses the 

 property of solidifying at medium temperatures and separatin 

 acicular crystals, so that in the process of distillation the 

 cooling must be very carefully effected, otherwise the con- 

 densing tubes become blocked. This phenomenon occurs espe- 

 cially in the medium fractions of the oil. The rasped wood has 

 an agreeable balsamic odour with a suggestion of rose oil which 

 is not perceptible in the normal oil. By separating the oil into 

 a number of fractions, the rose odour can be recognised in some 



or 



