- 78 - 
The quantity is somewhat scanty, probably for the purpose of 
preventing a further drop in the value. No further details have yet 
been received as to the various sorts of which they are composed. 
In our last Report we mentioned on page 63 that "the methods 
which are nowadays employed for testing the quality of sandalwood 
oil, have been devised by us". We notice that E. Parry ^) takes 
umbrage at this remark, in which he sees an attempt to belittle his 
services in the examination of sandalwood oil, which surprises him all 
the more, as we had hitherto not denied him our acknowledgments 
in this matter. We admit that our above-mentioned words may 
possibly seem to imply that we attach no value to the method 2) of 
quantitative estimation of santalol first communicated by Parry, but 
this is not by any means the case. On the contrary, we consider 
the determination of santalol the most important help in the analysis 
and in judging the value of sandalwood oil, and we fully appreciate 
Parry's work on this subject. Now, while we fully recognise Mr. Parry 's 
merits with regard to this important method, we believe that there 
can be no impertinence on our part in reminding him, that the pro- 
cess of determining the alcoholic constituents of essential oils by 
acetylation and subsequent quantitative saponification of the acetyliscd 
oil, was first of all proposed by us as a universal method for essential 
oils, and elucidated by various examples*^). The application of this 
method to sandalwood oil lay on the very path which we had indicated. 
For this reason we believe that we have a claim to the santalol- 
determination, and all the more so, as the quantitative acetylation 
of sandalwood oil by means of acetic anhydride instead of acetic 
acid, which we indicated shortly after Parry's communication, has, 
as far as we know, been more generally adopted as representing a 
more convenient working method. 
Sandalwood Oil, West Indian, In his first treatise^) on 
West Indian sandalwood oil, E. Deussen mentions that, on introducing 
hydrochloric acid gas into the dextrogyrate oil (a^ -|- 2 7° 1 8') diluted 
with ether, he obtained a laevogyre cadinene hydrochloride ([a] = 
— 36,65° in chloroform). In the author's opinion, the dextrogyre 
cadinene present in West Indian sandalwood oil is in this case inverted 
to laevogyre cadinene by the action of the hydrochloric acid. In the 
^) The Chemist and Druggist 60 (1902), 866. 
^) Pharm Journ. (London), 55 (1895), i^^- The conversion into santalyl acetate 
by heating with acetic acid to 150°, has been adopted by Parry from Chapoteaut 
(Bull. Soc. chim. II. 37 (1882), 303. 
^) Report October 1894, 62. 
^) Archiv d. Pharm. 238 (1900), 149. 
