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expected, Italy being an important consuming market of apricot kernels, 

 and commercial intercourse between the two countries having ceased 

 entirely owing to the enormous war-duties imposed by the Customs of 

 each nation upon the products of the other. But it would seem that Italy 

 had covered her principal requirements before the outbreak of the war. 

 In Hamburg the demand has left somewhat to be desired; in that market 

 attention has been paid to Japanese and Chinese kernels, which were 

 obtainable more cheaply than Damascene kernels, at any rate temporarily. 

 It will be remembered that we had already revised our prices for expressed 

 almond oil from apricot kernels in the previous autumn, in order to bring 

 them into accord with the new market value of the 1911 crop; hence our 

 quotations could remain unaltered. The demand has been normal, and 

 so has that for genuine essential bitter-almond oil, although, since the 

 incorporation into the Pharmacopoeias of artificial chlorine-free bitter al- 

 mond oil, and the consequent admission of that product in the manu- 

 facture of articles for human consumption, the cheaper artificial oil is of 

 course preferred in many quarters. There is, however, a not unimportant 

 difference between the two oils in respect of taste, and this is often dis- 

 regarded by the manufacturers who employ these oils. It may be added, 

 however, that manufacturers who have formerly been in the habit of using 

 'Very cheap" bitter almond oils, free from hydrocyanic acid, with a 

 "guarantee of genuineness", are obviously unlikely to notice much dif- 

 ference when employing artificial oil. 



G. Bertrand and A. Compton 1 ), who have recently been engaged in 

 investigations on the influence of temperature upon the activity of emulsin, 

 have discovered that at a raised temperature the constituents of emulsin, 

 amygdalinase and amygdalase, affect amygdalin almost equally. In the 

 course of an experiment extending over 15 hours the maximum action of the 

 enzymes upon amygdalin is attained at about + 40°; in a two hours' experi- 

 ment at about + 56° for amygdalase, and at about + 58° for amygdalinase. 



Ambrette Seed Oil. The price of ambrette seed has risen by more 

 than 100 per cent, in the course of the last twelvemonth, and the only 

 reason why ambrette seed oil maintained its previous cheap price for 

 some considerable time was the existence of fairly large stocks both of 

 seed and of oil. These have now been cleared off, and our quotations 

 have followed the market-value. It is now a considerable time since * 

 supplies have come to hand from the various countries of production, P 

 and for the present orders for the raw material can only be placed at 

 prices which must be described as exorbitant. 



x ) Bull. Soc. chim. IV. 9 (1911), 71. 



