NUTMEGS A>'D MACE. 29 



probably contaminated with the red, fixed oil of mace, that bDdy 

 being, as he states, soluble in the volatile oil. Fliicki2:er found 

 that oil of mace deviates the polarised ray IS'^'S' to the right in a 

 200 millimetre tube. The principal constituent of the oil was 

 termed by Schacht Macene, a hydrocarbon C-^oH^g boiling at 

 160^ C, distinguished from oil of turpentine in that it does not 

 form a crystalline hydrate on being mixed with alcohol and nitric 

 acid. Macene, by treatment with hydrochloric acid gas, yields 

 crystals of C^qHt^qH CI, which oil of nutmegs, similarly treated, 

 does not (according to Cloez).* Crude oil of mace contains, like 

 oil of nutmeg, an oxygenated body, the properties of which have 

 not been investigated. 



Several species of Myristica furnish products more or less 

 analogous, and, as before observed, several species are employed to 

 adulterate the true spice. Aromatic products are derived from 

 the Myristica spuria of the Philippine Islands, the Myristica 

 Madagascariensis of Madagasca, the Myristica Bicuiha of Brazil^ 

 the Myristica Otoha of New Granada, and the Myristica sebifera 

 ( Virola sehifera, Aublet), the seeds of which furnish an abundance 

 of aromatic yellow tallow, which is of crystalline appearance and 

 suitable to the manufacture of candles. 



The leaves of Myristica fragrans yield on distillation a colourless, 

 exceedingly limpid oil with an agreeable and fine nutmeg-like 

 odour and taste. This oil could be employed as a substitute for 

 nutmeg oil. 



An oil of nutmeg-like odour and flavour is also yielded by distil- 

 lation of the leaves of Eucalyptus alba. 



Apart from the ordinary adulteration with nuts of inferior 

 species, nutmegs are frequently sent into the market after being 

 subjected to distillation in the entire state and a quantity of the 

 volatile oil extracted from them, being therefore comparatively 

 valueless, and ingenious methods have been devised for dressing up 

 inferior nutmegs to resemble good ones ; the fraud has even been 

 carried so far as to fabricate artificial nutmegs of bran, sawdust, 

 clay and powder of nutmegs ! The Chinese are great adepts in the 

 art of adulteration, have in fact elevated it to the rank of a " fine 

 art," but although most of their tricks are very clever, they have 

 not been accused of such original audacity as the manufacture of nut- 

 megs, papier-mache hams, and such-like " properties " which can 

 * Journ. de Pharm. [3] xlv., p. 150. 



