88 Report of Schimmel § Co. 1921. 



phosphoric acid method and against the resorcinol method. We have sufficiently often 

 explained our standpoint with respect to this question 1 ) and will refrain from raising 

 the point again on this occasion. 



A. Reclaire and F. Rochussen 2 ) report on the progress made in the domain of the 

 chemistry of the terpenes and the essential oils during the period 1916 to 1919. 



Analytical Notes. 



E. W. Dean and D. D. Stark 3 ) describe a method for the determination of water 

 in petroleum and in other organic solvents which might possibly find application in 

 essential oils. The apparatus required consists of a flask with short neck which is 

 joined to a reflux cooler by means of an elbow tube. At the end is a conical graduated 

 cylinder into which the condensate drops directly. The sample to be examined is 

 heated with the same amount (if necessary, with more) of a solvent which is not 

 miscible with water, for example, a mixture of 80 per cent, xylene and 20 per cent, 

 benzene. It is heated in such a way that two to four drops of distillate fall from the 

 cooler per minute. The addition of the xylene-benzene mixture is to facilitate the 

 suppression of any emulsion. 



For the quantitative estimation of highly volatile alcohols A. Grun and Th. Wirth 4 ) 

 have worked out a method which is based upon the conversion of the alcohols into 

 less volatile esters and upon the indirect titration of these esters. According to this 

 method the substance to be analysed is made to react with the chloride of a higher 

 aliphatic acid at a temperature below the boiling point of the alcohol, until the alcohol 

 is quantitatively esterified. The excess of chloride is redecomposed again, by means 

 of water, into free aliphatic acid and hydrochloric acid and washed out with water. 

 The aliphatic acid having been neutralised, the ester is saponified and the percentage 

 of alcohol is thereby determined. The authors recommend to take lauric, or lauric 

 and myristic, acid chloride rather than palmitic or stearic chloride. In the analysis of 

 most of the primary alcohols half an hour was sufficient for the reaction of the acid 

 chloride. Geraniol and secondary alcohols, however, required longer periods of reaction 

 (up to 3 hours), but they could then be determined with fair accuracy. Less good 

 results were obtained with methylnonyl-carbinol. Secondary alcohols, the hydroxyl 

 group of which is joined to a ring carbon atom (menthol), and tertiary alcohols of the 

 type of linalool were found unsuitable for this method. The presence of acetone in 

 the sample to be tested does not interfere with the accuracy of the method. In how 

 far aldehydic mixtures are amenable to this treatment has not yet been ascertained 

 by the authors. 



Detailed experiments on the solubility of vanillin and coumarin in aqueous 5 to 

 50 per cent, glycerin solutions at different temperatures (0.2° to 60°) have been published 

 by Melvin de Grote 5 ). The author prepared saturated solutions of vanillin and coumarin 

 and determined the quantities which had passed into solution by shaking the solutions 

 (diluted with water) repeatedly with ether. In this extraction it must not be overlooked 

 that glycerin, though insoluble in dry ether, is soluble in aqueous ether. For that 



>) Cf. Report 1920, 34. — 2 ) Cliem. ZUj. 44 (1920), 853. — 3 ) Journ. hid. eng. Chem. 12 (1920), 486. 

 ') Ztitschr. d. Dcutschen 01- a. Fett-Ind. 41 (1921), 145. — 6 ) Americ. Perfumer 15 (1920), 372. 



