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At the first general meeting of the Seventh Intern. Congress of 

 Applied Chemistry, A. Haller 1 ) referred to natural and artificial 

 camphor. After describing the origin and mode of production of the 

 natural product and giving statistics of exports and price -fluctuations, 

 he pointed out that the increasing demand for manufacturing purposes, 

 such as celluloid, smokeless powder, leather-substitutes, etc., taken in 

 conjunction with the scarcity of natural camphor, was highly favourable 

 to the development of the artificial camphor industry, which is based 

 upon the conversion into camphor of the pinene of the various oils 

 of turpentine. Haller divides the methods of preparing the artificial 

 product into two groups; in one of which pinene is first converted 

 into its hydrochloride, while in the other it is subjected directly to 

 the action of organic acids. According to the author the comparison 

 which is often drawn between the development of the synthesis of 

 alizarin and indigo, and the camphor industry as regards the displace- 

 ment of the natural products concerned, is in so far untenable that, 

 whereas the cultivation of madder has ceased altogether, and that of 

 indigo has been largely abandoned, the planting of camphor trees is 

 making steady progress. Moreover, the raw material of synthetic 

 camphor, i. e. oil of turpentine, is only available in limited quantities 

 and at fluctuating prices. Hence, Haller regards the future of the 

 artificial camphor industry as very uncertain. 



We aie nevertheless inclined to think that the foundations are already 

 laid down on which afterwards, when times have become more favour- 

 able, this branch of industry may be reared to profitable development. 

 The development of the artificial camphor industry may depend in 

 the first place upon the relation between the prices of oil of turpentine 

 and of camphor. 



In view of the by no means inconsiderable quantities of synthetic 

 camphor which have been brought to market up to the present time, 

 the possibility of distinguishing the artificial from the natural 

 product is a matter of great importance, especially in pharmaceutical 

 practice. Racemic camphor, including, therefore, the synthetic article, 

 has a different physiological action from the optically active forms to 

 which Japanese camphor belongs 2 ). A paper read by W. Lohmann 3 ) 

 before the German Pharmaceutical Society, dealing with the indications 

 of difference between natural, artificial and synthetic camphor, may 

 therefore be of interest. Lohmann associated himself in the main 

 with the statements of Crane and Joyce 4 ) to which we wish to 



x ) Chem. Ztg. 33 (1909), 621. 



2 ) Comp. Report April 1908, 176; November 1908, 161; April 1909, 113. 



8 ) Berichte d. deutsch. pharm. Ges. 19 (1909), 222. 



4 ) Comp. Report October 1907, 27. 



