Selections. 
[XO. 4, KETT SERIES, 
The same author also states that Wood Oil is aflPorded hy D. costatus C D. 
angustifolius W. et A.), Z). alatus Roxb. and D. incanus Roxb., the last 
mentioned being reputed to furnish the largest proportion of the best sort 
Closely allied to the "Wood Oil of Dipterocarpus is the oleo-resin termed 
Camphor Oil, produced by Dryohalanops Camphora Colebr., a tree of the 
same natural order. For a specimen of this oleo-resin and of an analogous 
liquid called Lagam Oil, both brought from Sumatra by Dr. Junghuhn, I 
am indebted to the courtesy of Dr. J. E. De Vrij of Rotterdam. 
Wood Oil, as imported from Moulmein.. is after filtration, a transparent, 
dark brown liquid, of somewhat greater consistence than Olive Oil, a sp. 
gr. of .964 and an odour and taste like copaiba, thougl^ perhaps hardly so 
strong. One part of it treated with two parts of ^Icohol sp. gr. .796, is 
dissolved with the exception of a minute quantity of darkish flocculent 
matter, which subsides upon repose. 
But its most curious property (as noticed by Mr. Charles Lowe with re- 
ference to a liquid which I suppose to have been Wood Oil*) is that exhi- 
bited when it is heated in a corked vial to about 266*^ F. (130<> C.) f Thus 
treated, it becomes slightly turbid, and so gelatinous that the vial may be 
inverted, even while hot, without its contents being displaced ; and on cool- 
ing, the solidification is stiU more complete. Gentle warmth and agitation 
restore to a great extent its fluidity, but solidification is again produced 
upon the liquid being heated to 266*^. Copaiba displays no such pheno- 
menon. 
According to Dr. O Shaughnessy, when Wood OH is heated in a retort, 
a yellowish white, crysiallizahle, solid substance having many of the pro- 
perties of benzoic acid sublimes into the upper part of the vessel, to the 
extent of about one per cent, of the Wood OA taken. In my own expe- 
riments, I have not detected any of this substance. It is true that when 
Wood Oil is heated, a scanty, opaque white sublimate condenses in the 
fooler part of the vessel, but this appears to arise from the condensation of 
a little water among the minute drops of essential oil, since it is not pro- 
duced if the Wood Oil has been previously agitated with some fragments 
of dried chloride of calcium. 
With regard to its medicinal properties, there appears to be no doubt 
♦ On a new variety of Balsam of Copaiba, Pharmaceutical Journal vol. sir. 
pp. 6o, 66. 
t Mr. Lowe says 230« F., but a inuch>ore striking effect is produced on the 
Wood Oil by the temperature I have named. 
