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From the study of the statistics and the objective examination of the situation, 
upon which we have bestowed great care, we draw one practical conclusion. 
Florentine orris-root is the subject of a crisis which, though not new, is surely 
but transitory. If the commercial value of a product sinks below the cost of 
production, experience teaches that the production decreases, and that the smaller 
yield cannot fail to raise again the commercial value of the article. The present 
crisis also obeys this law, and its severity can only be tempered by an honest 
understanding between producers and exporters. But the future of a strong 
undertaking may bring a happy fate to the distillation of orris-root in Tuscany, 
and through the latter to the national economic life, and to such we repeat the 
old proverb: "Every man is the architect of his own fortune". 
Our quotations for both kinds of orris oil — the concrete and 
the liquid — are now so low, that it will pay to make contracts at 
once. We have secured a fair stock of splendid raw material at the 
lowest rates and are able to offer our products at exceptional figures. 
Patchouli Oil. In accordance with an arrangement made with 
a firm at Penang, we now receive regularly direct consignments of the 
best patchouli -leaves which can be obtained. The purchase is diffi- 
cult and requires great caution, as the danger of admixture of bad 
leaves is very great. For a long time this was carried on on such 
a large scale, that several parcels caused great disappointment. 
At this moment a large consignment which is reported to be of 
very fine quality, is just arriving at Hamburg. 
Within the last few weeks there has been a brisk demand for 
patchouli oil, which induced us to exercise a certain reserve in con- 
cluding business transactions. We use every effort to obtain a sufficient 
supply for our regular clients, but in spite of this we are bound to point 
out that our quotations are without engagement. 
Oil of European Pennyroyal. Tetry^) has further examined 
and carefully fractionated this oil. The small quantity of first runnings 
was repeatedly distilled over sodium in order to isolate the terpenes, 
but the author did not succeed in obtaining the lowest boiling portions 
free from oxygen. Up to 173° fractions which were more or less 
strongly Isevorotatory passed over; the last of these fractions, of the 
boiling point 170 to 173°, showed a specific rotation [a]D = — 52^1 1'; 
when brominated, it yielded a bromide melting at 106 to 109°, which 
Tetry considers to be a mixture of the tetrabromides of 1-limonene and 
dipentene. Treatment with amyl nitrite and hydrochloric acid produced 
a small quantity of a well-crystallising nitroso chloride of the melting 
point 135°. From the principal fraction boiling at 110 to 112° 
(at 20 mm pressure) menthol was produced; the separation from the 
pulegone was obtained by conversion of the menthol into the benzoate 
boiling at 190° (18 mm), whilst pulegone passed over at 107° (at 
') Bull. Soc. chim. III. 27 (1902), 186. 
