(CHEMICAL PREPARATIONS AND DRUGS. 55 
Chemical Preparations and Drugs. 
Anisole. One of the most powerful remedies against the lice pest among the 
soldiers at the front (see also page 74 of this Report) is, as was only recently discovered, 
anisole, 7.e. the methyl ether of phenol (carbolic acid), CsHs-OCHs. It owes its name 
to the former method of obtaining it from anisic acid, a process which has long 
been replaced by a more convenient and cheaper one. 
As could be read in the newspapers, the discovery of the excellent action of 
anisole is due to a mere chance. When Prof. S. Frankel, in Spiegler’s Institute for the 
investigation of cancer (Vienna), was trying experimentally the efficiency of the various 
remedies recommended against vermin, he asked his assistant to give him the bottle 
containing aniseed oil (Anisé/), and the man fetched anisole by mistake. 
We have started the manufacture of this preparation. 
Benzoin. Siam benzoin occurs in commerce in loose pieces, which are always 
purely white and opaque; only on the surface there is a very thin yellow or reddish 
yellow, transparent film. This film forms only after long storage and is an oxidation 
product of the resinous mass proper. In order to prove this, F. Reinitzer') exposed 
benzoin to the air at a warm temperature, and after several weeks a reddish yellow 
film had covered the originally white surface. On the other hand pieces of benzoin 
which had been kept for several weeks at a temperature of between 45 and 47° in 
tubes filled with carbonic acid, remained purely white. Generally speaking, benzoin, 
according to Reinitzer, oxidizes rather easily. 
On this account the resinotannyl benzoate described by Lutdy is no original 
component of benzoin, but has formed by oxidation of benzoin with the excess of 
alkali during the process of heating for several weeks. Reinitzer found in Siam 
benzoin a new colourless, crystallizing substance, lubanyl benzoate’). In addition, he 
was able to prove that benzoresinol does not occur in benzoin in combination with 
benzoic acid, as presumed by Ltdy, but as a free alcohol. 
The benzoresinol contained in Siam benzoin does not agree in all its properties 
with the benzoresinol obtained by Ludy from Sumatra benzoin, and therefore Reinitzer 
called it siaresinol. In order to get lubanyl benzoate, benzoin, freed from the yellow 
film, is dissolved in ether, to which solution light petroleum is added cautiously. At 
first only amorphous substances will be precipitated, but later on likewise lubanyl 
benzoate as minute crystals. 
Benzyl alcohol. In an earlier Report®) we have mentioned that according to 
P. Mayer liquid terpineol is a useful medium for microscopic purposes, which in many 
of its properties is superior to clove oil or eugenol. The same author has quite 
recently described another entirely new application of benzyl alcohol in microscopic 
1) Arch. der Pharm. 2%2 (1914), 341. — *) Lubanol from Luban djawi, the original name of benzoin. — 
2) Report October 1910, 153. 
