Commercial notes and scientific information. 53 



disulphide (II). The sodium salt of this compound (III) was next decomposed with 

 iodine, whereupon the desired mustard oil, t)'-thiocarbimido butylmethylsulphone (IV) 

 was isolated in satisfactory proportions from the reaction-liquors. The synthetic 

 mustard oil proved to be completely identical with erysolin. A mixture of the two 

 bodies produced no depression of melting-point. The 5-aminobutyl methylsulphone from 

 the synthetic product was likewise identical with that obtained from natural erysolin 



Essential Oils, Sicilian and Calabrian. 



Mr. Eduardo Jacob, of Messina, in his usual obliging manner, has furnished us with 

 a report on these important articles, which we reproduce verbatim below: — 



In the year 1912 the exports have exceeded those of the previous year by 61972 

 Kilos and by 4725442 Lire, that is to say, there has been an excess of about 8 p. c. 

 in weight and of about 30 p. c. in value. The increase in value is due for the smaller 

 part to the fact that the prices of lemon oil have been continually rising throughout 

 the year, but chiefly to the great increase in the value of bergamot oil, which in the 

 months of January and February of the year under review rose within a few weeks 

 from 45 o4l to 67 c4i and of which the average value throughout the year was main- 

 tained at about 55 eft. This high range of values has, generally speaking, been caused 

 by the reduced crops of the winter 1911/1912. All varieties of essences have been 

 firmly held throughout the year, because the available stocks were barely sufficient 

 to meet the consumption, and the owners were therefore in a position to maintain 

 their pretensions. It is true that in the face of these high prices the consumption 

 has been restricted as far as possible, but in spite of this the stocks of all oils avail- 

 able in the warehouses here have been gradually used up, and therefore, as soon as 

 the new oil of the 1912/1913 crop made its appearance, it encountered a market in which 

 the need of supplies was felt to an extraordinary degree. 



No deviations from the normal have been observed in the physico-chemical constants 

 of the present season's essences unless it be that bergamot oil shows a rather lighter 

 specific gravity and lemon oil a somewhat lower rotation than the oils of last year. 



Passing to the particular varieties of essential oils, I have to report as follows: 



Bergamot Oil. In September of last year the approximate price of this oil was 

 55 c/Ji. Notwithstanding that the consumption of bergamot oil has been very seriously 

 affected by the presence of so many cheap substitutes, the demand has been so strong 

 that the available supplies were quite used up as early as the commencement of 

 November; hence the new oil, which on this occasion reached the market a little 

 earlier than in the two previous seasons, immediately found ready buyers. 



In the course of the autumn-months sales of this oil had been made for delivery 

 to foreign countries at an average price of from 52 c4t to 53 ^//, and speculators who 

 thought themselves clever had already discounted the knowledge that the crop was 

 rather better than that of the previous season, by making bear-sales at from 45 cJl to 

 50 c4i.. The depletion of the stocks of old oil, however, before the arrival on the 

 market of the new, and the sustained foreign demand, which received the new crop 

 with open arms, so to speak, naturally caused an immediate rise in the value of the 

 new oil for which, consequently, as early as the beginning of December, from 55 .-// 

 to 56 o4t had to be paid. 



