106 REPORT OF SCHIMMEL & Co. APRIL 1914. 
a margin of 2°. The m.p. of official menthol should therefore be required to be from 
42 to 44°. 
We entirely disagree with Lehmann when he regards such deviations, insignificant 
in themselves, as an adequate ground for declaring that the determination of the m. p. 
is valueless as a factor in the valuation of menthol, and when he proposes to sub- 
stitute the solidifying point for the m.p. Apart altogether from the fact that it is 
decidedly simpler to estimate the m.p. than the sol. p. of menthol, the introduction 
of the last-named as a test would not put an end to disagreements. We therefore 
fail to see any advantage in the substitution of the sol. p. for the m. p. of menthol. 
We would rather advocate the substitution in the Pharmacopceia of the m. p. (50 to 51°) 
for the sol. p. in the case of thymol also, for here the conditions are similar to those 
which obtain for menthol, while moreover absolute solidification of thymol is not even | 
reached in the course of the test. If the prescriptions laid down in the German 7 
Pharmacopeeia, 5th Ed., in respect of apparatus and of method of estimation are observed, 
material differences are impossible. 
The solidifying point is a factor of very different importance in the valuation of 
liquid preparations such as anethol and eucalyptol, where the whole mass solidifies 
rapidly and where a sharp determination is therefore possible: In such cases the sol. p. 
is certainly to be preferred to the m.p., especially because it is at the same much 
more easily determined. This applies in an even higher degree to oils containing 
anethol, and Lehmann is quite correct in laying stress upon the fact that it would 
have been better if the German Pharmacopeceia, 5th Ed., had prescribed a definite 
solidifying point for fennel oil, in the place of its indefinite indications as to the 
behaviour of the oil during cooling and subsequent warming. We, however, regard 
Lehmann’s proposed sol. p. of 2 to 3° for fennel oil as too low, for a sample of good 
oil of Pharmacopoeia quality should not solidify below --5° (after being cooled to 
+ 3°). We have already put forth this demand on a previous occasion’), when dis- 
cussing the essential oils of the German Pharmacopeeia, 5th Edition. 
Musk, Tonquin. The exports of musk from Shanghai in the year 1913, as com- 
pared with preceding years, are set forth in the table below: — 
Year Paris London New York Germany | Total 
1 and Austria 
| Catties | Catties | Catties Catties | Catties 
1913 260 HAT 28S GOB a 15 710 
compared with 
1912 320 183 287 36 826 
1911 417 155 317 20 ~ 909 
1910 722 230 3) ZO 65 1313 
1909 480 | 1061 186 60 887 | 
1908 666 7 211 9 923 
With regard to the smallness of the shipments to Germany, it should be stated 
that a considerable part of the German consumption is included in the figures referring 
to Paris, that city having become the leading European centre of the musk-trade. 
In spite of the paucity of the total shipments as compared with those of previous 
1) Report April 1911, 128. 
