76 



(C. glauar. The result was hardly a success, hnancially, as the price was too 

 low, and 26s. per cwt. does seem an unreasonable price for such material. It 

 mav be, too, that the right time of the year for the collecting was not chosen. 

 But, perhaps, the two factors which more than an}- other go towards making the 

 collecting of this resin a success, are, (i) to discover the best method of causing 

 the resin to exude in quantity, and (2) to find a paying market for the resin when 

 collected, as it is evident that any reasonable demand could be met if the price 

 was remunerative. The resin might, perhaps, also be graded with advantage 

 before being sent away from Australia. 



Investigations into the composition of sandarac have been carried out from 

 time to time by numerous chemists, and the results are recorded in the \'arious 

 scientific journals. 



One of the earliest chemical researches on the composition of sandarac is 

 that of Johnston (" Phil., Trans.," 1&39, 293), who, from his results, considered 

 that it consisted of three resin acids. More recent investigations are those of 

 Tschirch and Balzer (" Archiv. der Pharm.," i8g6, 289), who considered that 

 sandarac consists of two acid resins, which they named sandaracolic acid and 

 callitrolic acid. Dr. T. A. Henry, in an extensive research (" Jour. Chem. Soc," 

 igoi, p. 1144), also showed that sandarac was composed of two acid resins, viz., 

 pimaric acid, C.,„H^O.,, and calhtrolic acid, C^H^fi., together ^\ith a small amount 

 of an essential oil. 



Tschirch and Wolff '" Arch. Pharm.," 1906, 684-712 ; see also, abst. " Chem. 

 Soc", 1907, I, p. 145) publish a later research in which they maintain that sandarac 

 is composed of three acid resins, \nz., sandaracic acid, C^H^^O^; sandaracinolic 

 acid C ,,H„,0.j ; and sandaracopimaric acid C,„H.;„0, ; besides other allied substances, 

 and a small amount of an essential oil. 



From the above it would seem that there is yet some uncertainty as to 

 the real composition of sandarac resin. This may be attributed perhaps to the 

 difficulty of separating the acids of sandarac from each other in an absolutely 

 pure condition, and to the different methods of research employed. Perhaps, too, 

 there may be a want of constancy in the constituents of the sandarac itself, due 

 to the varying length of time between the exudation of the resin and its chemical 

 investigation. The changes from the semi-liquid into the solid constituents must 

 be somewhat rapid at first, and it is a question when absolute finahty in this 

 respect is reached under ordinary conditions. This supposition is suggested 

 from the results of our investigation of the resin and oil in the latex of Araucaria 

 Cunninghamii, and also of the similar substances in the oleo-resin of Agathis 

 robusta (this work). 



It is, however, certain that sandarac does contain a small quantity of an 

 essential oil, perhaps the residue of the unaltered terpenes, &c., and at least two 



