96 H. G. SMITH. 



were removed by distillation from the crude oil, and the remainder 

 (about 40 per cent.) poured from the still into shallow glass vessels 

 and left a few days to crystallise. It then formed a soft crystalline 

 mass of the consistency of butter. This was then spread upon 

 porous plates to absorb the fluid portions. This was found to be 

 important as a very small quantity of adhering terpenes makes 

 subsequent purification difficult. When the adhering oil had been 

 absorbed a whitish product was obtained. This was dissolved in 

 alcohol, water added until slight turbidity remained, and left in 

 open vessels to crystallise. This was found the better way as by 

 adding excess of water an oily product was obtained very difficult 

 to crystallise. On standing a day or two the camphor crystallised, 

 this was removed as a cake, the mother liquor being used for a 

 further crop of crystals. The adhering liquid was removed by 

 porous plates and the process repeated until a perfectly snow- 

 white product was obtained, having the correct melting point 

 79-80° C. 



The crystalline substance is quite white, silky in lustre, and 

 beautiful in appearance. It is very soft and inclining to a paraffin 

 nature, the crystals are fairly well developed, acicular, and when 

 sufficiently transparent to allow light to pass, polarize partly in 

 colours, and extinguish parallel. Only a comparatively small 

 amount of crystals could be obtained of this nature, the remainder 

 on purification consisting of small interlaced crystals giving the 

 product a matted appearance. In its purified state it is exceed- 

 ingly light. When the fraction containing the eudesmol was first 

 obtained from the oils of E. macrorhyncha and E. camphora it was 

 thought that we might obtain the camphor in good quantity, as 

 the faction crystallised into a solid mass on standing, but this was 

 more apparent than real, as when purified only a comparatively 

 small amount of eudesmol had been obtained, and it would be 

 necessary to distill a very large quantity of oil to enable one pound 

 of pure eudesmol to be obtained. 



Eudesmol is insoluble in water and alkaline solutions. It is 

 soluble in chloroform, petroleum ether, ether, alcohol, glacial acetic 



