Notes on scientific research. 105 



The superiority of the French products is not due to the raw material. As far as 

 the intermediate products of perfumery are concerned, such as are obtained from im- 

 ported drugs, the Saxon products are at least equivalent in quality to those from 

 Marseilles, Nice and Grasse, and superior in cheapness, i. e. out of two aniseed, sandal- 

 wood, caraway, or fennel oils, 8jc, equal in quality, that of German make is nearly 

 always cheaper, as apparatus and working methods are better, more exact and cheaper 

 in Germany, and the work also being done more quickly there. In this respect, there 

 is nothing to be improved. The conditions are similar with oils imported in a crude 

 state and purified, or otherwise improved, in the country. In these two sections, 

 Germany has, besides, a scientific merit, for although German investigation in this 

 domain began considerably later, it surpassed all the others in results. The whole 

 world has acknowledged the German discoveries how to prepare synthetically new 

 bodies with the aid of the exact analysis of the components of the oils and the 

 determination of the physical and physico-chemical (among these especially the 

 stereochemical) properties and constants, discoveries connected with the names of 

 Wallach, Baeyer, Tiemann, Semmler, Gildemeister, and Rupe. There is no wish to be- 

 little or to obscure the work of English, American and French scientists, but he who 

 impartially studies the relative publications must say that the lion's share in the 

 development of the chemistry of the essential oils and aromatics belongs to the Germans. 



As regards the manufacture of the common oils, such as those of wormwood, 

 valerian, tarragon, melissa 1 ) and especially lavender and thyme, Germany does not 

 grow them to any considerable extent, nor own any regions where they grow wild, so 

 as to afford sufficient raw material. Knowing the present producing countries or 

 districts, Loffl considers as unsuitable the recommendation to start in Germany growing 

 these plants, or peppermint and other medicinal herbs, as likewise the cultivation of 

 most of the plants producing oil fruits or seeds, e. g. sunflowers, for 'which so much 

 propaganda is made just now. According to his view, lavender, thyme, wormwood 2 ), %c, 

 will never thrive with us in equal quality as in Spain, the South of France and round 

 Beyroot. The economic reason for which Germany is not fit for this kind of cultivation 

 is that the ground is too expensive and the work of gathering likewise. 



'The treatment of the commoner kinds of raw material, such as lavender and thyme, 

 is better with us in many cases, and French manufacturers have often indirectly been 

 induced to employ better and more rational methods by German firms who, like 

 Schimmel § Co., settled down in the producing districts. 



In this respect, there is nothing to be altered and little to be improved in the 

 German industry. Where we have no raw material in the country, the production is 

 not to be forced, the only way being to erect small special branches. Especially the 

 countries who are friendly disposed towards us, such as Bulgaria and the producing 

 districts in Asia Minor, are to be thought of in this way, and Syria, e. g., where Lautier 

 had a remunerative branch at Beyroot, is a region worthy of note, where plantations 

 might be started on a large scale. In Asia Minor too, districts suitable for a similar 

 purpose might be found, and it is there that we ought to send our botanists and 

 chemists after the war. The necessary work of clearance and cultivation is compara- 

 tively easy there, all the more so as a good many of these plants require but little 

 care, if soil and climate are favourable. 



x ) The oil of melissa of commerce is no pure distillate, but either lemon or citronella oil distilled over 

 melissa herb, if not simply a fractionated oil of citronella. The yield from the herb of Melissa officinalis L. 

 is so small that the price of the genuine oil would be prohibitive. See Gildemeister und Hoffmann, --Pie 

 dt/ierischen Ole", 2 nd ed., vol. Ill, p. 501. — 2 ) This is not the case as far as wormwood is concerned. 



