158 W. M. DOHERTY. 



tropin and vanillin to be blended together quite free from 

 any sign of vanilla beans. But generally speaking, more 

 costly preparations are the rule now (for the true vanilla 

 is still high in price), although there are indications that 

 some manufacturers fortify an inferior natural product 

 with the cheap, though in itself excellent, artificial vanillin. 

 In this paper I propose to describe a simple process for 

 the determination of vanillin in genuine essences, and, 

 incidently, to give a brief account of the vanilla plant 

 itself. 



But before passing to this, I would like to say a little 

 concerning a phase of the subject which is of some import- 

 ance. It has been affirmed that the vanillin alone is the 

 only valuable part of vanilla, and the employment of the 

 whole pod in making an essence is an expensive application 

 of an old-fashioned custom to no good purpose, besides it 

 disregards the advance of science, as applied to this article. 

 Now I do not think that vanillin alone, although it goes a 

 long way towards it, is an absolute substitute for vanilla, 

 any more than synthetic acetic acid is a substitute for 

 malt vinegar, or, if I am not unduly stretching the analogy, 

 morphia a substitute for opium, or strychnine for nux 

 vomica. It is a very significant fact, and well worth 

 emphasising in this connection, that vanilla grown and 

 cured in Mexico, which is the only natural home of the 

 vanilla of commerce, is still by far the most highly prized, 

 although it may contain actually less vanillin than the 

 same species grown and cured elsewhere. Such competent 

 observers as Leach, Parry, Allen, and Tibbie support this 

 view. The latter in his "Foods: their origin, manufacture 

 and composition," p. 738, makes the following pregnant 

 statement: — 



"It is considered, however, that the fine aroma and fragrance 

 is not due to vanillin alone. The interior of the fruit contains 

 vanillic acid, resins 4 per cent., fat 11 per cent., sugar 10 per 



