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 :— 
‘“(1) 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 d@-linalool, 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 (Aun. 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, 
