110 Report of Schimmel § Co. 1922. 



for industrial purposes. The question arose, is it commendable from an economic 

 standpoint or not to increase the cultivation of medicinal plants in Germany. 



Th. Sabalitschka 1 ), in an investigation entering very closely into this question, 

 comes to the certain conclusion that in Germany the cultivation of medicinal herbs 

 is in any case a serious necessity which, provided the proper herbs are selected, is 

 particularly provitable for small growers. After dealing with the cultivation of drugs 

 in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Sabalitschka enters upon the following points: — 

 a. consumption in Germany, prior to the War and in future, of drugs obtainable in 

 the country itself; b. drug imports into Germany prior to the War; c. profitableness 

 (from the producer's view) of drug cultivation; d. advantages of cultivating drugs for 

 Germany's trade in general; e. directions how to cultivate succesfully medicinal and 

 aromatic herbs in Germany; /. cultivation of drugs in states other than Germany, and 

 acknowledgement of the necessity of promoting the cultivation. 



Since Sabalitschka's paper touches but lightly our own domain, we content ourselves 

 with the above review. In any case, we recommend sincerely the perusal of this extensive 

 paper which is well supplemented with statistical data on drug imports and exports. 



In addition to several short bulletins (in the manner of the Circulars of the De- 

 partement of Agriculture, U. S. A.), the Italian "Federazione pro Montibus" has published 2 ) 

 a dictionary giving the vernacular names of the Italian medicinal and aromatic plants 

 and the corresponding Latin terms. 



K. Bournot 8 ) gives a review for 1920 of the research work on terpenes and essential oils. 



Analytical Notes. 



K. Hoepner 4 ) deals with the various methods for estimating the alcohol content in 

 presence of volatile substances. He discusses six methods worked out by the German 

 Alcohol Monopoly Office for determining the free alcohol, not combined with acids, 

 in mixtures of spirit with neutral volatile bodies (perfumes, hair tonics, mouth washs> 

 mixtures of alcohol and esters, with exception of methyl alcohol and of so-called 

 fusel oil) and compares the results with his own experiments. Two of these methods, 

 a) diluting and salting out the sample, then distilling and taking the specific gravity 

 of the distillate, b) chromic acid process without previous skaking out with sodium 

 sulphate and light petroleum, proved to be unreliable and should be abandoned. 

 Equally the method consisting of diluting with salt solution, then shaking out with 

 light petroleum and distilling the spirit, cannot be recommended. Of the remaining 

 three processes the one consisting of calculating the alcohol content direct from the 

 specific gravity is appliable only in cases when the composition of the preparation 

 is known as to the density and quantity of the dilute alcohol and of the dilute volatile 

 constituent; in addition, a table for calculating the actual alcohol strength must be 

 consulted. The method basing on the process of diluting and shaking out with light 

 petroleum of the neutral volatile ingredients, where the alcohol present is calculated 

 from the density of the distillate, furnishes values which are in the most cases too 





x ) Tiber die Notwendigkeit des Arzneipflanzenanbaus in Beutschland, iiber seine Rentabilitat und seine Vorteile 

 fiir die dentsche Volkswirtschaft und iiber die zweckmcifiigste Inangriffnahme der Medizinalpflanzenkultur in Beutsch- 

 land. Berlin, published by Gebr. Borntrager, 1921. As per a copy kindly forwarded to us. — 2 ) Domenico 

 Saccardo, Dizionario dei norm vulgari delle piante medicinali e da essenze piu in uso e dei corrispondenti scientifici 

 latini. Arch, di Farmacugnosia e Scienze affini, vol. 8, 1917. — 3 ) Chem. Ztg. 45 (1921), 531. — 4 ) Zeitschr. 

 Unters. d. Nahrungs- u. Genu/Jmittel 41 (1921), 193. 



