— 8o — 
We have further received from Amani a white-coloured wood, which 
has a much fainter odour of skatol, and which at the same time smells 
like linalol. Its botanical origin is also unknown. 
Professor Zimmermann makes the following remarks on the subject: 
"The wood of ibis species of tree has in the fresh state a fairly faint 
and not exactly disagreeable odour. Only whea it has reached a certain slate 
of decay it commences to smell strongly and disagreeably, but in a further 
stage of decomposition it again becomes odourless. It may be assumed that 
the fresh wood already contains a substance from which through decay the 
malodorous substance originates." 
This observation, which at any rate is very interesting, deserves to 
be continued further. As we have as yet been unable to obtain a 
sufficient quantity of material, we have not yet been in a position to 
make a chemical examination of the white species of wood. 
Notes of recent scientific work concerning terpenes and 
terpene derivatives. 
The desinfecting action of essential oils and their constituents has 
lately been the subject of several examinations. 
Calvello^) has made comparative tests regarding the bactericide 
properties of oils of thyme and cinnamon, and other oils, as compared 
with a I per cent, solution of mercuric chloride, and he has found that 
a 7 to 8 per cent, emulsion of cinnamon oil, or an 1 1 per cent, solution 
of thyme oil, in washing the hands, has the same sterilising action as 
the solution of mercuric chloride, without possessing the disagreeable 
secondary properties of the latter. The most powerful action is obtained 
with a 9 per cent, emulsion of cinnamon oil, which effects complete 
sterilisation. 
Marx 2), in continuation of previous work by Konradi, has 
examined terpineol, heliotropin, vanillin and other aromatic bodies for 
the same purpose. 
The development of pathogenic germs, such as the spores of anthrax 
and Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, is arrested by the above-named 
substances. A i per cent, solution of terpineol destroyed Anthrax after 
I hour, and in a lo per cent, solution it had the same effect on 
Staphylococcus] nitrobenzene effected the same result in a lo per cent, 
solution only after 24 hours. Specially powerful is the action of terpineol 
in combination with soft soap. In bacteria- emulsion the above-mentioned 
substances, — and preferably again terpineol — effect agglutination, 
1) Pharm. Ztg. 47 (1902), 759. 
^) Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. und Parasitenk. 33, I (1903), 74; according to Chera. 
Repert. 27 (1903), 28 and Apoth. Ztg. 18 (1903), 7. 
