Commercial notes and scientific information. 97 



by fluctuations in the rate of exchange. There does not appear to have been any 

 dearth of oil, or else the uncertain state of the market would assuredly have given 

 way to a decided increase in prices. Last year's output of Tonquin oil is practically 

 sold out and new oil is not yet on offer. 



Taraxacum Root Oil. From the alcoholic extract of taraxacum root (Taraxacum 

 officinale, Web., N. O. Compositce) F. B. Power and H. Browning 1 ) have obtained traces 

 of a volatile oil of a deep yellow colour, in which they detected furfurol by means 

 of the colour-reaction. 



Thyme Oil has shown no variations in price. The market has been fairly quiet 

 and at times the sale left much to be desired, especially because this oil suffers very 

 seriously from the competition of cheap and inferior qualities. 



C. Kleber 2 ) raises the objection to the method laid down in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia 

 for the estimation of thymol in oil of thyme, that the prescribed quantity of liquor is 

 insufficient. Even when the phenol-content is only 20 p. c, he says, 20 cc. of 5 p. c. 

 soda-liquor are insufficient for 10 cc. oil, because owing to the fact that thymol and 

 carvacrol are only faintly acid, these constituents are in part retained by the non- 

 phenols unless a sufficient excess of alkali is present. 



Kleber carries out the estimation with 4 p. c. soda liquor in a cassia-flask. He 

 first fills this with the liquor up to the 0-mark and then adds the oil under examination 

 up to the top-mark (either 6 or 10 cc. according to the graduation of the neck of the 

 flask). He then stops the flask with a cork, turns it over in order to allow the oil 

 to ascend into the bulb, and shakes for several minutes. After this he allows it to 

 stand, reads off, and converts into percentages. 



We may here add that in a Supplement to the U. S. Pharmacopoeia dated 1 June, 1907, 

 the quantity of 5 p. c. liquor to be used in the estimation of phenol in oil of thyme has 

 been increased from 20 to 40 cc, which, we should say, disposes of the subject. 



Tuberose Oil. The tuberose plantations in the South of France are suffering much 

 from a disease which is locally known simply as maladie des tubereuses, but of which 

 the origin was unknown there. From an article by F. R. Varaldi 3 ) we observe that the 

 cause of the affection has now been traced to the same nematode which causes the ring- 

 disease of the hyacinth-bulbs and which is injurious to many other cultivated plants. In 

 order to destroy the pest, Varaldi recommends treating the soil with carbon disulphide. 



Turpentine Oil. For a considerable time turpentine oil (either newly-distilled or 

 so-called "ozonised") has been used, together with hydrogen peroxide and perman- 

 ganate of potassium, as an antidote in poisoning with yellow phosphorus. A large 

 number of scientists have within recent decades carried out chemical and toxicological 

 investigations into this subject, but up to the present there has been so great a divergence 

 between their views on the efficacy of turpentine oil in phosphorus-poisoning that the 

 oil could not be said to be a universally recognised remedy. Some authors regard the 

 action of the oil as due to the formation of oxidation-products of phosphorus, whereas 

 others deny altogether that it has any effect upon phosphorus at all. According to 



!) Journ. chern. Soc. 101 (1912), 2413. — 2 ) Americ. Perfurmer 7 (1912), 1S3. — s ) Rcr. de Grass* 56 

 (1913), No. 6, p. 2. 



