LAUEUS BENZOIN, OR AVILD ALLSPICE. 45 



cjreat bulk of this constituent had been expressed along with the 

 fixed oil. 



" The dregs remaining in the still were then carefully dried, and 

 two lbs. of them were percolated with ' gasolin ' (it is presumed 

 that benzene is here meant) until exhausted. After this 

 menstruum had been entirely removed by spontaneous evaporation, 

 a residuum of thick fixed oil and resin were left, weighing 7J ozs. 

 This amount corresponds very nearly to 25 per cent, of the weight 

 of the expressed berries, or to about 17 per cent, of the original 

 weight of the drug, making, together with the 33 per cent, 

 previously obtained by expression, just 50 per cent, of oily and 

 resinous constituents. From this amount, however, the per- 

 centage of volatile oil subsequently obtained by distillation from 

 the expressed oil is to be subtracted. The sp. gr. of this residuum 

 was identical with that of the expressed oil, viz., 0-929. The two 

 oils were also closely analogous to each other in their colour and 

 consistence, but the taste of the expressed oil is far more aromatic 

 than that of the residuary product. When the latter was shaken 

 up with three times its volume of alcohol, about two-thirds of it 

 was readily dissolved. It was freely soluble in ether. When 

 subjected to distillation with water, the water came over almost 

 tasteless. 



" One hundred ounces of the expressed oil (corresponding to 

 about 300 ounces of the crude drug) were then submitted to 

 distillation, being heated by steam. A yield of 2| ounces of 

 volatile oil was thus procured, being somewhat less than one per 

 cent, of the original weight of the berries. The residue remaining 

 in the still was increased in density to 0'931. The essential oil 

 has a sp. gr. of 0-850 ; it is thin, bright green in colour, and has a 

 warm, aromatic taste somewhat resembling that of allspice and 

 prickly ash. The residue of the ' spice-berries ' remaining after 

 the expression and subsequent exhaustion by ' gasolin ' was 

 almost tasteless." The bark of this shrub was subjected to 

 chemical examination by Morris Jones,* w^ho found it to contain 

 '' a volatile oil belonging to the cinnamyl series, yielding, by the 

 action of oxidizing agents, a product having the odour of oil of 

 bitter almonds." AVith the view of ascertaining exactly the 

 amount and qualities of the volatile oil yielded by this shrub 

 investigations were made by Schimmel el' Co. in their laboratory ; 

 * Am. Jouni. Pharm., 1873, p. 300. 



