4 On Waters distilled from inodorous Plants. 



necessary to be adopted, and in this the chief object to be 

 attended to is to collect as much as possible of the aroma of 

 the plants which arc submitted to distillation. Several ex- 

 periments were made with this view, and they were attended 

 \vith the most happy results. 



Among all the processes employed, that of eohobating 

 and recohobating the first distilled water of the plant upon 

 fresh quantities of the same plant seemed to be the most 

 successful. In fact, it was thought that, an inodorous plant 

 onlv containing a small quantity of aroma, the first water 

 distilled could never be very rich in the odorous principle, 

 since the plant could only furnish the small quantity be- 

 longing to it ; but if the distillation is repeated with the first 

 distilled water and a new quantity of plants, the produce of 

 this second distillation ought necessarily to have more odour 

 than the first ; and for the same reason, by means of a third 

 distillation, and even a fourth, we, may be able to saturate 

 the water with aroma, which then not only acquires a sen- 

 sible taste and smell, but also acts differently when used for 

 medicinal purposes from the water obtained by one distilla- 

 tion only. 



For several years part I have prepared distilled waters 

 by the above method, and I always obtained results con- 

 formable to the above theory. Latterly I have added new 

 proofs to those I had already acquired, and the establish- 

 ment of the imperial laboratory, in particular, furnished me, 

 with these opportunities. Being under the necessity of pro- 

 viding all the medicines for that institution, and also of at- 

 tending to their preparation with the utmost exactitude, I 

 invited M. Clairon, my assistant in the laboratory, to lend 

 me his aid in the project I had conceived of distilling, in 

 the most careful manner, such plants as are thought inodo- 

 rous. We stopped the operation from time to time, in order 

 to introduce such modifications and improvements as oc- 

 curred to us from reflections during the operation. Conse- 

 quently, twenty-five inodorous plants were first distilled in 

 the usual way; the produce of each distillation was after- 

 wards cohobated, and recohobated upon fresh portions of 

 plants ; and we abvavs stopped the operation when we dis- 

 covered 



