Dr. A. Schulte im Hofe 133 



with indigo leaves as well, in fact it takes 

 place very rapidly ; and in some countries 

 indigo is prepared in a primitive manner, 

 similar to above. As the oxygen takes longer 

 to obtain access to the interior of the cacao 

 and coffee bean, the process of oxidation 

 lasts much longer. The same seems to be 

 the case with tobacco leaves. If one could 

 treat these as one does tea-leaves, i.e., if the 

 oxygen could obtain easier access to the 

 interior of the tobacco leaves by some 

 mechanical process corresponding to the 

 rolling of tea-leaves, its ability to do so 

 would certainly be able to greatly accelerate 

 oxidation. I succeeded in shortening the time 

 considerably by simply maintaining the con- 

 ditions favourable to oxidation. 



These notes, like the investigations, are, 

 of course, in no wise complete. It is, as a 

 rule, far more difficult to adopt scientific 

 results in actual practice than to explain 

 empirical methods scientifically. 



