- 87 - 
The distillation should not commence below 150^, 
d should be between 0,0000 and 0,0010, 
A<; 1,0, 
zl<^o,oi2 5 (corresponding to 2,5 ^/q normal adulterants). 
Herzfeld^) has also found the observation of the refraction of 
turpentine oil very useful for testing the oil. According to him, turpentine 
oil in a Zeiss' butter-refractometer, at 15°, generally shows 68° to 72°, 
rarely up to 75°. The refractions of the individual fractions of pure 
turpentine oil differ but little from each other and from the original 
oil, whilst even slight admixtures produce changes in this behaviour. 
A specific gravity below 0,865 characterises the oil always as suspicious. 
As even greatly adulterated turpentine oils generally still answer the 
requirements prescribed by the customs authorities for oil of turpentine 
as a denaturating agent of brandy, Herzfeld considers that those 
requirements should be altered. 
A. Tschirch^) and G. Schmidt communicate the results of their 
examinations of the resin balsam from Pinus laricio Poiret (Austrian 
turpentine). 
The turpentine obtained in the well-known manner from the black 
fir, represents a viscid non - transparent mass, whose specific gravity 
was ascertained at 1,875. ^7 extracting the ethereal solution of the 
balsam with i ^/q solution of ammonium carbonate, and subsequent 
usual treatment of the aqueous liquid, the above-named authors obtained 
a white amorphous acid, laricopinonic acid, in a yield of 25 ^/q. By 
subsequent extraction of the ethereal solution with i ^/q solution of 
sodium carbonate, an acid, laricopinonic acid, was isolated, which after 
recrystallisation formed colourless crystals and melted at 97°; the 
yield was 34 A i ^/q potash-solution did not absorb anything 
further from the resin-solution thus treated; for this reason, the latter 
was freed from ether by distillation, and the residue distilled with 
steam, when (35 ^/q) essential oil distilled over, whilst (2^/^) resin, 
laricopino - resin, remained behind. On dry distillation of the resin 
balsam, 30^0 colourless essential oil passed over up to about 100°. The 
essential oil driven over during steam- distillation represented a colour- 
less, mobile liquid of the specific gravity 0,872, which had a pleasant 
turpentine odour. The taste is aromatic, slightly burning. The oil is 
soluble in ether, alcohol, methyl alcohol, benzene, carbon disulphide, 
acetic ether, and petroleum ether. It boils between 154° and 164°; 
the bulk passes over from 155° to 160°. 
^) Abstr. Chem. Centralblatt. 1904 I, 548. 
^) Archiv der Pharm. 241 (1903), 570. 
