— I04 — 
importance of this article has been overrated. Although it may play 
a certain part in various industries , it is entirely out of the question 
that a factory which only produces safrol and its by-products, can 
possibly prosper. 
Terpineol. Since the price of American turpentine oil has risen 
to 90 marks per 1 00 kilos cif . Hamburg, the production of terpin hydrate 
comes so much more expensive, that an advance in the price of terpineol 
is justified. It will come as soon as the old stocks have been used up. 
Thymol, The demand for this powerful antiseptic was so brisk 
owing to the exceptionally low prices, that we have only been able 
to meet it by working overtime. The value of the raw material remains 
low, as before. 
Vanillin. The decline in the value has not only come to a 
standstill, prices show even an advance. They may have to be raised 
still further, should those of clove oil, which forms the material for 
vanillin, continue to rise. 
It is well known that the vanilla fruit, in the state in which it is 
gathered, does not in the least possess the characteristic odour of 
\^anilla. It only acquires this odour by suitable treatment. H. Le- 
comte^) has now studied the conditions which bring about the for- 
mation of \'anillin, which imparts the wonderful perfume to the fruit. 
According to the researches of the above-named scientist, there exist 
in the vanilla plant two ferments, which differ in a marked degree 
from each other in their functions. The one, an oxydase, is present 
in the individual organs of the plant, such as the leaves, shoots and 
their aqueous extracts, in the green and ripe fruit which has not yet 
been worked up, and in the prepared commercial fruit. Lecomte 
detected it in these organs of plants of different origin, by means of 
G. Bertrand's reactions. At the same time, the presence of mangan- 
ese salts was observed in all products, which renders it not impos- 
sible that they stand in some relation to the above-named ferment. 
The second ferment is contained in the sap of the vanilla, and pro- 
duces as a hydratising ferment (in the manner of diastase bringing 
about the conversion of starch into grape sugar), the formation of a 
substance which shows the same reactions as those which have always 
been met with in the vanilla plant. With regard to the mechanical 
treatment of vanilla, it would appear in the first instance as if it 
counteracted the function of the ferment. It consists, as is well known, 
M Journ. de Pharm. et Chim. 17 (1903), 341. 
