- 38 - 



such as for example ourselves, cover their requirements partly on the 

 Dutch terminal market, and those supplies reach this country mostly 

 by land. 



It is well known that clove oil is very popular as an addition to 

 tooth-powders and mouth-washes, owing to its disinfecting properties. 

 J. C. Webster 1 ) now has found that the oil on account of its pro- 

 nounced bactericide action, also constitutes an excellent disinfectant for 

 the hands, which is distinctly preferable to mercuric dichloride. After wash- 

 ing and brushing the hands for about 5 minutes with warm water and 

 soap, they are dried with a sterilised towel, and washed for 1 minute 

 with alcohol. The hands are then rubbed in for 4 or 5 minutes with 

 clove oil, which is finally washed off with alcohol. Bacterial cultures 

 from hand scrapings on gelose gave in 45 cases, after applying clove oil, 

 only 0,04 colonies, whilst by treatment with water and soap only, under 

 otherwise similar conditions, 450 colonies were formed, and disinfection 

 with sublimate (1:2000) still gave a mean of 21 colonies. Silk threads 

 infected with pathogenic germs were absolutely sterile after 30 minutes' 

 immersion in clove oil. Catgut ligatures immersed for about 8 days 

 in clove oil were after draining, soaking in 95 per cent, alcohol for 

 6 to 8 hours and drying more thoroughly sterilised than by any 

 other method. Webster characterises the results of the disinfect- 

 ion with clove oil as so satisfactory that all other methods were 

 abandoned. 



Oil of Copaiba. Philippine wood oils. Under this name 

 A. M. Clover 2 ) comprises liquid balsams which dry very badly, and 

 have a high content (75% and above) of volatile substances. The 

 latter consist chiefly of bodies of the sesquiterpene-group. Clover 

 describes three different kinds of oil: — 



1. Sup a oil. The mother-plant, Sindora Wallichii Benth. (like 

 Copaifera belonging to the family of the Legtiminosae), is distributed 

 throughout the islands. 



A freshly tapped tree yields about 10 litres of the product which 

 is obtained by hollowing out the trunk. The oil forms a mobile, 

 homogeneous liquid with a faint yellow colour, a feeble fluorescence, 

 and a faint but characteristic odour; d^ 0,9202; «D3o o — S 1 ^ ; 

 when cooled down below 20 , white flaky crystals separate off, which 

 consist of a hydrocarbon of the m. p. 63 to 64 , and form about 

 5 °/ of the oil. The oil dissolves in all usual solvents except alcohol, 

 readily absorbs oxygen from the air, and finally solidifies. When 

 submitted to steam distillation, a colourless oil passes over, «D3o° — 21 ; 



1 ) Pharmaceutical Journal 77 (1906) 553. 



2 ) Philippine Journ. of Science 1 (1906), 191. 



