SCIENTIFIC AND OTHER NOTES ON ESSENTIAL OILS. 43 
With cats and dogs the oil produces symptoms of depression of the higher nerve 
centres; later on convulsions follow. With dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs, the power 
of resistance against chenopodium oil is about the same, for the cat the drug seems 
to be more poisonous. Internal administration requires about double the dose used 
in subcutaneous injections; ascaridol is more than 30 p.c. more poisonous than 
chenopodium oil. 
Ocker*) describes the fatal case of a boy who died within 5 days after taking . 
31 drops of American wormseed oil, and believes to be justified in putting down the 
fatal issue to poisoning by wormseed oil. 
Wormwood Oil. It is not surprising to note that the sale of all kinds of worm- 
wood oils left much to be desired these last few years, seeing that the chances of 
consumption have been greatly circumscribed by the stringent absinth laws introduced 
by most of the European States. American wormwood oil, of which there is no lack 
of supply, cost § 4.25 per Ib. in February 1914, whereas to-day it is difficult to realize 
S 2.25 in the producing districts. The great reputation of wormwood oil of our own 
drawing from herb cultivated by ourselves in Miltitz, has added to the fact that the 
demand for the American oil has become smalier little by little. Our own plantations 
look very well and promise excellent results. 
Cultivation and distillation of wormwood in Wisconsin have been described. by 
R. H. Denniston and R. E. Kremers?). Formerly the oil distilled along the Atlantic 
border was looked upon as unfit for use until shipped to Europe, whence it was re- 
imported as “European oil”. Later it was thought that the climate of the western 
United States had an unfavourable influence on the oil produced in these states. To- 
day, however, a fair amount of wormwood is cultivated in Wisconsin, though almost 
exclusively in Sauk County. The immediate financial advantages derived from worm- 
wood cultivation are not great, but its importance lies in the fact that it is an additional 
element in diversified farming. The crop alternation usually practised in Wisconsin 
is as follows: wormwood, maize, oats or barley, wormwood. The rotation, however, 
is not a three-year rotation, since wormwood is allowed to stand longer than one season. 
Wormwood sown the first year, with oats or barley as a cover crop, can only be 
harvested in the second year, the yield in oil being then greatest. It is continued 
until the oil yield becomes too low to render distillation profitable. Maize is then 
planted, the cultivation of which puts the soil in good condition. After this follow 
oats or barley, wormwood being sown at the same time. Cultivation in rows is very 
favourable for the development of the wormwood plants. But this method is not 
practised in Wisconsin for two reasons: First, the acreage is usually too vast to permit 
of transplanting by hand, and, secondly, the wormwood fields are used to pasture cattle. 
The cattle does not touch wormwood. The fields can be used as pasture until about 
a fortnight before the beginning of distillation, unless the cattle is molested too 
intensely by flies. 
Wormwood seed is almost microscopically small. Before sowing, the soil must 
be well prepared. It is claimed that no harrowing should be done after sowing, as the 
first rains will cover up the seed sufficiently with soil. 
1) Zeitschr. f. Med.-Beamte 1915, N° 3; Pharm. Ztg. 60 (1915), 206. — 7) Bull. Univ. Wisconsin, Serial 
N° 738. Gen. Ser. N° 542, Madison 1914, p. 32. 
