Zz 
) 
. 
~ 
SCIENTIFIC AND OTHER NOTES ON ESSENTIAL OILS. 25 
The composition of the oil is as follows: 21.8 p.c. of terpenes, 17.2 p.c. of cineol 
(resorcinol method), 13 p.c. of a ketone of the m. p. 102°, 11.2 p.c. of alcohols (in- 
cluding linalool), 1.3 p.c. of ester (including methyl methylanthranilate), 0.5 p.c. of 
phenols, 0.1 p.c. of acids, and 34.9 p.c. of high-boiling parts, mainly sesquiterpenes. 
Oil of Lagoecia cuminoides. E. M. Holmes’) reports on the oil from Lagoecia 
cuminoides, L.; an umbellifera of deviating structure, as is clearly visible from the pictures 
with which the article is illustrated; it occurs in the eastern Mediterranean countries. 
The oil contains carvacrol, but Holmes does not state how he has proved this body 
in the oil, nor does he give any indications as to the constants of the oil. 
Lavender Oil. The numerous kind enquiries from our various friends as to the 
fate of our lavender oil distilleries in Barréme (Basses-Alpes) and Sault (Vaucluse) 
afford us the opportunity to inform enquirers that all we know are a few paragraphs 
culled from newspapers, from which it is evident that since the beginning of the war 
both establishments were sequestrated by the French Government. Fortunately our 
stocks of lavender oil had already been shipped to us here when war broke out, and 
as in both places we employ native labour only, none of our staff suffered any loss 
or inconvenience. 
Under the heading of “Lavender robbers”, the Berliner Tageblatt®) published a 
noteworthy article, running as follows: “In its last leader the official Paris trade 
journal Le Bulletin complains about the fact that, from indolence and lack of spirit 
of enterprise on the part of the natives, the Germans had been allowed to invade the 
special domain of France, viz., the perfumery industry, and in continuing the discussion 
of the question it raised the query whether it was not time to call into existence, in 
the districts suitable for the purposes, French factories, exactly after the pattern of the 
sequestrated German establishments, and fitted up in exactly the same perfect style. In 
the reports on these points we read the following: For a number of years the Germans 
have made systematic attempts to bring the production of aromatic plants in France 
into their power, more especially in the departments of Vaucluse and Basses-Alpes. 
They have succeeded, needless to say exclusively to their own advantage, to bring 
about an enormous rise in the prices of lavender oil which is chiefly produced in these 
districts, this genuine French article which is exported every year in considerable 
quantities to England, the United States and to Germany. To the detriment of our own 
native perfumery distillers, the Germans have insinuated themselves into two districts 
specially famous for the quality of their aromatic plants, viz., in Barréme, in the Basses- 
Alpes and in Sault, in the department of Vaucluse. In order to dispel the mistrust 
which met them, the Germans showed themselves much more liberal towards the old- 
established guileless herb-gatherers than did their competitors, and as the intruders 
disposed of considerable capital it was easy for them to secure every year large 
quantities of the very best floral material for the requirements of their highly developed 
establishments. In 1902, fr. 15.— per kilo was paid on an average for pure lavender 
oil. The procedure of the Saxon factories established in Sault and Barréme has driven 
prices little by little to fr. 38.— and has therefore produced a quite unjustified rise by 
100 p.c., which is naturally felt in a very unpleasant manner by the French perfumery 
industry. Thus we see that in less than ten years the Germans have succeeded in 
drawing from their industry a profit of many millions, by the rise created by them in 
1) Perfum. Record 6 (1915), 231. — 7) No. 84, evening edition of February 15th, 1915. 
