152 ACTION OF SALTS ON VOLATILE OILS. 



vegetable. Whatever be the proportion of sugar and vola- 

 tile oil directed in different Dispensatories, the authors are 

 agreed on the intimate, nature of the union; and conceive, 

 that this method renders volatile oils miscible with aqueous 

 liquors. 

 For an oleo- Volatile oils reduced to an oleosaccharum are the more 

 saccharum the ^^^^ ^^ unite with aqueous liquors, in proportion as the oils 

 highly recti- are more fluid, and more highly rectified. When they are 

 • so to a sufficient degree, they even dissolve in {i large qtian-? 



tity of water alone. Mr. Baunie remarks, in his Elements 

 of Pharmacy, that essential oils, when they quit a vegeta- 

 ble to rise in distillation with water, undergo even in this a 

 The best oil true rectification. That which rises first with the milky 

 rs . water is more fluid and more fragrant, than what passes af- 



ter the receiver has been changed. The latter does not 

 whiten the water : the former dissolves in it in consequence 

 of its tenuity, and gives it that milky whiteness, which is 

 observed as long as it passes over in the distillation. Ac- 

 cordingly an oleosaccharum made with these first oils is 

 agreeably aromatic, does not render the aqueous liquor tur- 

 bid, and does not separate from it : while on the contrary 

 the second, of which we have been speaking, or any other- 

 volatile oil that has been made a certain time, or a mixture 

 of both these oils recently made, forms an oleosaccharum 

 that is not of a pleasing smell or taste, renders the aqueous 

 mixture turbid, and separates from it in a very short time. 

 AVe may ascertain this fact, by putting into a glass tube 

 filled with water an oleosaccharum made with this oil. It 

 will fall to the bottom ; tiie air contained in the sugar will 

 be extricated; the oil will rise through the fluid in small 

 globules and collect on the surface; if the mixture be 

 shaken it will turn milky, and be a long while becoming 

 clear again ; but the oil will at length reappear, having ex- 

 perienced a sort of thickening, so that instead of globules 

 it will form a sort of mucilaginous flakes. The oleosaccha- 

 rum then is an imperfect combination, when it is prepared 

 with an oil not sufficiently rectified. It is to be observed. 



The comhina- ^.^at many lozenges made by baking, and flavoured with es- 



tjon of the oil . , ., ^^ „ • . • o 



with the sugar seatial Oils, as those ot peppermint, anise, &«., are oleo- 



saccharuips 



