70 REPORT OF SCHIMMEL & Co. APRIL 1914. 
Mustard Oil. We would not omit to point out that according to A. Schwarz’) — 
mustard oil is an effective remedy in toothache and ear-ache. In the case ofa patient — 
who is suffering from toothache as a result of carious teeth, if a vial of about 20 gr. 
capacity containing about 5 gr. of essential oil of mustard, is held to the nostril, the 
patient told to shut his mouth and eyes and to smell once (that is to say, simply to 
inhale air once through the open nostril, the other nostril being lightly closed), the 
toothache disappears immediately. It is said that the oil also acts upon the first 
branch of the trigeminus, and is therefore effective in ear-ache. 
Myrtle Oil. At the Imperial Institute in London’) a myrtle oil from Cyprus 
(derived from Myrtus communis, L.) has been found to possess the following characters: 
des 0,9166 and 0,9302, a, + 8°14’ and + 8°, sap. v. 25,1, sap. v. after acet. 61,5, sol. 
in 5 vols. a.m. of 70 p.c. alcohol. 
Neroli Oil. The new orange-flower crop will be belated this year, because cold 
weather has prevailed in the South of France during the months of January and 
February, with the result that at the time of writing (middle of March) the trees are 
barely beginning to show the first signs of new buds. It is therefore quite impossible 
at the present time to make any forecast of the result of the crop which, in normal 
conditions, is usually gathered between the end of April and the beginning of June, 
but which this year will be considerably delayed. Although the trees had to stand 
severe cold in the winter they do not appear to have suffered particularly, for happily 
the frost only hurts them when it follows hard upon rain, and they are only slightly 
sensitive to dry cold, such as prevailed last winter. It would therefore seem warranted 
to predict a normal yield of flowers were it not that, contrary to their usual habit, 
the orange trees blossomed last autumn in over-profusion, and that experience shows 
that such an excess of autumn-blossom causes a weakening of the whole organism 
of the tree, and is bound to result in a diminution of the principal blossoming this 
year. At present, therefore, the feeling in the South is that only a -poor average crop 
is to be expected. The extent of the autumn-crop of 1913 may be gauged from the 
fact that the Société coopérative des propriétaires etc. received delivery of not less 
than 230000 kilos of flowers, whereas the quantity produced in the autumn of 1912 
was only from 30 to at most 35000 kilos. Although the autumn flowers contain less 
oil than do those gathered in the spring, they were sold to the distillers at the same 
price as the latter, namely 55 centimes per kilo. The demand for genuine neroli oil 
has been pretty well sustained, for the Société coopérative, which had 531 kilos of 
oil distilled by itself in stock at the close of 1912, has not only sold this oil, but 
80 kilos prepared in the spring of 1913 as well. The market, therefore, may be des- 
cribed as firm. It is to be hoped that the Société coopérative will come to an agree- 
ment with the Syndicate of Perfumers, in order that the owners of orange trees may 
get a somewhat more remunerative price for their flowers, for at 50 centimes a kilo 
(the price of 55 centimes paid by the distillers included carriage and commission), 
the cultivation cannot pay, and does not cover the cost of tending the trees and 
collecting the flowers. In consideration of the low price the Société coopérative has 
sold the whole of the 1617903 kilos of flowers received by it, with the exception of 
84516 kilos which it has worked up itself. In previous years the quantity of flowers 
distilled by the Society was five to six times as large. 
1) Minch. med. Wochenschr. 1914, 420; Apotheker Zty. 29 (1914), 188. — *%) Bull. Imp. Inst. 11: (1913), 433. 
Comp. Report April 1910, 78. 
