The Last Word 283 



in other spontaneous fruit fermentations taking 

 place at comparatively high temperatures in 

 the presence of a free supply of air." 



After describing the chemical and physical 

 properties of the essential oil and other 

 volatile products of cacao, the paper concludes 

 with a summary, part of which is reproduced 

 as follows : 



" (i) The aromatic principle of the cacao 

 bean is an essential oil ; (2) two thousand 

 kilos of cacao nibs (deprived of some cacao 

 butter) gave a yield of 24 cc. of purified oil 

 with a very powerful aroma and flavour of 

 cacao ; (3) the oil was fractionally distilled 

 three times and the third distillation yielded 

 seven fractions ; (4) the early fractions were 

 rich in esters, divided in all probability from 

 the fermentation of the cacao bean ; (5) the 

 middle fractions were rich in rtMinalool, corre- 

 sponding closely with coriandrol. The total 

 linalool represents more than 50 per cent, of 

 the cacao oil." 



As the question of cacao oil is here intro- 

 duced the following, taken from the Journal 

 of Chemical Technology for December, may be 

 of interest : 



" Duyck (Ann. de Chim. Anal., Novem- 

 ber 17, 1912, p. 405). A summary of experi- 

 ments on various methods for detecting 

 adulteration in cacao butter. The official 

 French method demands the determination of 

 (a) the temperature of solution in absolute 



