ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. XXXIX. 



Lalande in establishing and extending the conception is indicated. 

 The first deduction of the direction of the solar motion was made 

 by Pierre Prevost in 1781 from twenty-six stars, the latest by 

 Kobold from 2,262 stars. Herschel is generally credited with 

 being the first to numerically estimate the direction in 1783, but 

 wrongly so. The historical sequence of the various determinations 

 is preserved in the development of the paper, and the bibliography 

 is believed to be exhaustive. 



3. " On an Eucalyptus Oil containing sixty per cent, of geranyl 

 acetate, by Henry G. Smith, f.c.s., Assistant Curator, 

 Technological Museum, Sydney. 

 In this paper the author shews that the oil of Eucalyptus 

 macarthuri, known locally as Paddy's River Box, is very rich in 

 geraniol, it containing 60 per cent, of geranyl acetate, and 10*64 

 per cent, of free alcohol, calculated as geraniol. The oil is some- 

 what analogous with that obtained from Darwinia fascicular is i 

 brought under the notice of this Society by Mr. R. T. Raker and 

 the author in December 1899. Both Darwinia and Eucalyptus 

 belong to the natural order Myrtacese. The oil of E. 'macarthuri 

 contains eudesmol (the stearoptene of Eucalyptus oil) the fraction 

 distilling between 266-282° C, crystallising quite solid in the 

 bottle. This substance is absent in the oil of Darwinia. The 

 yield of oil from this Eucalypt collected in October from near 

 Wingello, in this colony, and obtained by steam distillation from 

 fresh leaves and branchlets was 0-112 per cent. The whole of 

 the ester was saponified in the cold by alcoholic potash in one 

 and a half hours. As no heat was applied, the separated oil was 

 excellent, the geraniol not being interfered with. This fact of 

 cold saponification of geranyl acetate might be used for quantita- 

 tive determination of this ester, when it and other esters are 

 present in essential oils. Citral was obtained by oxidation, and 

 the pure geraniol prepared from the calcium chloride compound; 

 this was a colourless oil boiling at 224 - 225° C. (uncor. ) and had 

 a specific gravity of -885 at 20° 0. The acid of the ester was 

 shown to be acetic acid. The crude oil contained neither 



