Dr. A. Schulte im Hofe ta2 
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, z.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. 
