— 79 — 
which owe their aroma to the joint action of a large number of dif- 
ferent bodies. 
In addition to the above-named already known constituents, we 
have either proved the presence of the following important aromatic 
bodies with absolute certainty and isolated them, or have indicated 
their presence as very probable^). They are: — 
Pinene, creosol, eugenol, isoeugenol, eugenol methyl ether, 
benzyl alcohol, benzyl acetate, benzyl benzoate, methyl ester 
of benzoic acid, methyl ester of salicylic acid, methyl ester 
of anthranilic acid, and further, an odourless sesquiterpenic alcohol 
melting at 138^. 
In order to protect this discovery we have on 23^^ September 1901 
applied for letters - patent. 
Novelties. 
In November last year w^e received from Professor Zimmermann, 
who directs the Botanical Garden at Amani in German East Africa, 
a sample of w-ood obtained from a species of tree which is there 
indigenous. The red-brow^n w^ood, in places covered with brilliant 
crystals, diffused a penetrating skatol-like odour. In order to obtain 
the odorous substance, the pieces of w^ood were washed several 
times with ether. After distilling off the ether, a brown crystalline 
mass remained behind, w^hich w^as then distilled out with steam. In 
this manner we obtained from 112 grams wood, 1,2 gram = about 
I per cent, of white crystals with an intense skatol- odour, which melted 
at 95^. These are consequently identic with skatol. With hydro- 
chloric acid they formed a hydrochloride melting at 168°. As it was 
usual to consider skatol essentially as a secretion of the animal organism, 
the fact, here confirmed, of the presence of not at all unimportant 
quantities of this powerfully smelling body, is especially interesting. 
Skatol was observed for the first time in a plant by Duns tan 2). 
He found it in a sample of the wood of Celtis reiiculosa, collected by 
Daniel H anbury and deposited at the museum of the Pharmaceutical 
Society of London. This tree occurs in Java, Ceylon, and the East 
Indies. The fresh w^ood of this tree is also said to have a penetrating 
and abominable odour. 
Up to the present it has not yet been possible to determine the 
botanical origin of the tree indigenous to East Africa, from which the 
wood examined by us was obtained. 
Report April 1896, 62; April 1899, 9; October 1901, 54; April 1902, 64. 
^) Pharmaceutical Journal 19 (1899), 10 10. 
