— 8o — 
by their synthetic products: on the contrary, both branches of manu- 
facture move hand in hand, and interchange their experiences. Quite 
recently, science has turned towards the study of the oil-formation in 
the plant itself, a task which especially Charabot and his co-operators 
have taken in hand, and which has frequently been referred to in these 
Reports. The methods of production of the odorous substances from 
the blossoms have also been examined scientifically by Hesse himself, 
and he was then able to etablish the remarkable fact that some blossoms, 
such as the jasmine and tuberose, yield after the gathering, in the 
enfleurage process, from nine to twelve times the amount of odorous sub- 
stance which they contain when being gathered. In view of these yields, 
showing in what rational manner the unknown inventors of these pro- 
cesses (based on purely empirical methods) unconsciously worked, Hesse 
pronounces himself in favour of the employment of the extraction or 
enfleurage methods, as against the distillation process mostly used in 
Germany. 
PharmacologicO''physiological notes. 
H. Hildebrandt^) reports on the pharmacological action of some 
species of ''camphors". Whilst the use of thujone effects an increased 
pressure of the blood, continuing for ten minutes, fenchone does not 
act in this manner. Both bodies reduce the frequency of the pulse 
but increase its height. With thujone the number of pulsations in- 
creases again later on. Camphor, when administered in this condition, 
has a very stimulating effect on the musculature of the heart. 
The same investigator has supplied a contribution to the study of 
the biological behaviour of some compounds occurring in essential oils 2). 
He endeavoured to ascertain whether there existed a difference, from 
a biological point of view, between geraniol and nerol^). The physical 
constants of geraniol and those of nerol (which latter it has not yet 
been possible to produce free from geraniol) show such slight differences, 
that a definite differentiation of the two alcohols by means of their 
constants is not possible. With regard to the chemical behaviour, as 
far as it has been studied up to the present, there are no doubt 
differences which seem to justify the assumption that in the so-called 
nerol apart from geraniol another alcohol also is present. The biological 
examination showed that nerol and geraniol, when injected in white 
mice in minute doses of 0,05 gram, produced in a very few minutes 
^) Arch. exp. Pathol, and Pharmak. 48, 451, according to report Chem. Central- 
blatt 1903, II. 132. 
^) Zeitschrift fiir die gesamte Biochemie 4 (1903), 251. 
^) Hesse and Zeitschel, Journ. f. prakt. Ch. II. 66 (1902), 481. Report 
April 1903, 53. 
