. — 7i — 



We may also point out that the constants of most of the com- 

 mercial oils from the South of France which have been examined by 

 us agree with those of our own distillates, although as a rule in the 

 case of the French oils the rotation is slightly lower, occasionally 

 falling to — n°. In the case of oils where the rotation was still 

 lower we were able to observe a pronounced odour of spike oil, which 

 increased in proportion as the rotation diminished. In one particularly 

 striking instance we were able to prove adulteration with spike oil. 

 This adulteration was indirectly admitted by the distiller, who ex- 

 plained that spike had been previously distilled in the same still, and 

 that this might possibly have produced contamination. Such expe- 

 riences are sufficient reason for us to regard with distrust hyssop oils 

 of which the rotation is exceptionally low. 



Jasmine flower Oil. When jasmine flowers are extracted with 

 petroleum-ether the result, as is well known, is the so-called concrete 

 oil of jasmine flowers (essence naturelle concrete de jasmin). This con- 

 sists only partly of volatile oil x ) : the bulk is a mixture of wax - like 

 bodies. L. G. Radcliffe and J. Allen 2 ) have examined this wax and 

 found it to possess the following constants: sol. point 56 to 57 , 

 sap. no. 65,8 (the wax being very difficult to saponify, it was neces- 

 sary to carry out the work in a solution of amylic alcohol), iodine 

 number, according to Wijs, 52 to 53. The high m. p. of the wax 

 made the examination in the Zeiss butter refractometer more difficult, 

 but determinations were taken at various temperatures between 56 

 and 84 . As an example, the authors discovered that at 62 the 

 scale registered 40 (Lewkowitsch gives 29,5 to 30 at 30 for bees- 

 wax). No separate constituents were determined. 



Juniper Oil. The crop reports from Italy and France are uni- 

 formly unsatisfactory, but in Hungary the yield is a normal one. 

 Naturally, the Hungarians are trying to make the best possible use 

 from this absence of competition, and demand exceedingly high 

 prices. Since the beginning of the season the prices have already 

 advanced several marks, but whether the value can be permanently 

 kept up or not depends upon the demand. It will not be advisable 

 to count upon lower prices for juniper-berry oil of our distilling. 



The principal constituents of Juniper berry oil are the hydrocarbons 

 pinene 3 ) and cadinene 4 ). An examination which has been con- 

 ducted by us into the oxygenous compounds of the oil has shown them 



v ) Report October 1904, 49. 



2 ) Journ. Soc. chem. Industry 28 (1909), 227. 



3 ) Wallach, Liebig's Annalen 227 (1885), 28 



4 ) Report April 1890, 58. 



