328 ODOROGRAPHIA. 
But considering the use to which Algum or Almug wood was put 
by Solomon, for flooring and pillars, and to make musical instru- 
ments, it was probably not santal wood, but cedar, or some hard 
close-grained wood like shishem or sissoo (Dalbergia sp.), well 
known as “ Bombay Blackwood,” or else Red Sanders wood (of 
which most of the musical instruments in India are now made). 
Nevertheless santal wood is used in India for the pillars and 
doors of temples. The famous gates of the temple Somnath, 
carried off to Afghanistan by Mahmud of Ghazni, a.p. 1025, and 
restored to India by Lord Ellenborough in 1842, were found on 
examination not to be, as was generally said, of santal wood but 
of Cedrus Deodar (Indian Cedar), They are still lyimg in the old 
palace in the fort of Agra. 
The wood known as Red Sanders Wood, sometimes wrongly 
called ‘Sandal Wood,” contains no oil and is quite odourless. It 
is obtained from Pterocarpus santalinus, a leguminous tree found 
in Ceylon, and is a native of Southern India. The wood is 
imported in heavy dark-red billets and in chips. It is employed 
in pharmacy for colouring tinctures and is feebly astringent. Its 
red colouring-matter is termed Santalin, C,;H,,O;, which is in- 
soluble in water, turpentine, and fixed oils, but soluble in alcohol, 
ether, and acetic acid. In most essential oils it is nearly if not 
quite insoluble, but owing to its free solubility in rectified spirit 
it is useful to detect the presence of spirit in many essential oils. 
(A crystal of aniline red, magenta, can be used in the same way— 
a drop of oil let fall on to it and gently pressed with a paper- 
knife, the colour is not miscible unless spirit is contained in the 
oil as an adulterant. An exception to this test is oil of cloves, 
which dissolves the colour, and possibly other oils containing 
eugenol may dissolve it.) 
Crpar. 
The bulk of the oil of cedar of commerce is economically 
produced by distilling the sawdust and waste wood of the lead- 
pencil factories. In some factories in Germany this refuse 
accumulates to such an extent that it is sold at a very low price 
to get rid of it, as it would otherwise be used only as fuel. The 
wood is called “ Red Cedar” or “ pencil cedar” and is yielded by 
the Juniperus Virginiand, Linn., a coniferous tree native of the 
greater part of the United States. 
