— 82 — 
after which competition gradually forced it down to 22 marks. With 
this quotation, the extreme limit appears to have been reached. The 
laborious work of pulverising the tough wood, and the difficult distillation, 
do not meet with an adequate reward at this figure, and the hope 
that the prices may improve is therefore legitimate. 
Whether this hope, though, will be realised is a question which under 
the present circumstances can scarcely be answered in the affirmative. 
Parry and Bennett^) supply a contribution to the knowledge of 
East Indian sandalwood oil. On the one hand, they determined the 
physical constants of acetylised oils, and found as the limits of value 
of six samples : 
dj50 = 0,986 to 0,9885 
«D = — 13° 50' to — M^'ao' 
^1320° = 1,4894 to 1,4916. 
On the other hand, they distilled four sandal oils under reduced 
pressure, in fractions of lo^o each, and examined the individual 
fractions for their physical constants. 
They then found that the specific gravities and rotations of the 
successive fractions differ from each other in this manner, that at first 
towards the middle a decrease takes place^ and then the values again 
increase. The specific gravities go down to 0,964, and show as 
highest value 0,984, whilst the rotations fluctuate between — 14° 
and — 22°. 
These statements do not agree with the observations made previously 
by Potvliet''^) on the same subject. This author, on the contrary, 
found a gradual increase of the values, viz. from 0,920 to 0,986 and 
from — 10° to — 25^48' respectively. As it was in both cases a question 
of authentic samples, it is all the more surprising that the results show 
such variations. 
In a report^) published in the early part of this year, J. D. Riedel 
recommends once more Conrady's colour-reaction^) as a test for the 
purity of sandalwood oil. We have repeatedly expressed an opinion 
on the unreliability of such unscientific methods of testing, and we 
wish to state here again explicitly that Conrady's reaction is useless 
for the valuation of sandalwood oil, a fact of which we have now again 
convinced ourselves by a whole series of tests. 
^) Chemist and Druggist 64 (1904), 202. 
^) "Sandalwood and sandalwood oil." Pamphlet issued by the "Oranje" Company 
Amsterdam; May 1901. 
^) According to Pharm. Ztg. 49 (1904), 26. 
4) Pharm. Centralhalle 38 (1897), 297; Report October 1897, 57. 
