THH  TROPICAT.  AGRICUT/FURIST. 
t8 
Cnlniiiof;  and  wlio  novov  awlcod  fnv  <j;onPrnsily 
long  as  lie  was  able  to  work  for  his  living.  Mr. 
Ledger  is  now  75,  but  even  at  tlie  eleventii  hour 
there  is  time  for  reiientance  for  His  E-vcellency 
at  the  Hague.  Does  Holland  really  wish  to  be 
just  as  mean  to  the  oinehona  iiioneors  that  have 
added  to  its  wealth  as  Hritain  has  been  to  hors! 
— thcmist  and  JJrni/gist,  May  2. 
UllUG  KEPOKT. 
(From  Che, nisi  and  Drmjijist.) 
JiOiulon,  April  yu. 
Aueca-.m  ts.— SniiUl  sales  liave  been  in.ule  jirivately 
lately  at  12s  (id  per  cwt.  At  auction  12s  per  cwl.  was 
accepted  for  10  bags  of  fair  (piality. 
t’llOTON-SEEl).— Slightly  ea.sier.  Five  1-cwt.  bags  of 
good  bright  uuality  sold  today  at  05s  per  cwt.,  the  .same 
price  at  wliich  a imich  darker  lot  found  a buyer  at 
the  last  auctions. 
on.  (I'lssential).-Citroiiella  oil  (•..ntinnos  to  decline,  .a 
few  days  ago,  15  tons  in  drums,  wore  sold  at  Is  21d 
per  lb.,  c.  i.  f.  term-,  for  steamer  shipment  to  bondon 
until  end  of  .lune,  and  is  2d,  e.  i.  f.  for  ditto  unlil 
end  of  August.  Both  sales  were  for  oil  standing  .Si  him- 
mel’s  test.  . . , 
V.uMLi.A. — In  fair  .sup])ly  .and  good  demand,  an  ad- 
vance of  2s  per  lb.  being  paid  for  Mauritius  and  ,s!ey- 
chelle.s  beans,  which  r-  aiiseil  the  following  prices 
Good  to  fine  chocolate,  partly  crystallised,  5i  inches  to  S 
inche.s,  22s  Gd  to  3is  (>d  : medium  to  good,  ;g-  juches  to 
,5  inches,  21s  to  21s;  browni.sh,  .Vi  inches  to  inches, 
23s  Cd  to  2fls  Od  ; common,  Gs  to  IGs  Gd  per  lb.  A 
parcel  of  line  dried  < 'eylon  beans  realised  the  idghest  prici* 
ever  paid  for  this  variety,  viz.,  19s  Od  per  lb. 
SEEDS  (various).- /Vnnatto  .seed  rather  lirmly  lield  for 
good  cjuality.  Kifty  si.v  p.ickages  Madras  uere  bouglit 
fn  today,  4fd  per  lb.  being  relused  for  a fine  bright  lot. 
Nine  packages  low  West  Ind  an  sohl,  without  rose  ve,  at 
;d  to  Ijd  per  lb. 
THE  AMSTEUUAM  CINCHONA  AL'CTIONS. 
Our  Arastenhun  corresiiondent  telegraphs  on  Thursday 
evening: -At  today's  public  auctions  of  Java  cinchona- 
bark  5,55S  packages  were  offered.  Nearly  the  wfiole  of 
this— viz,  5,237  package.s— sold,  with  fair  cempeti  ion,  at 
firm  prices,  the  average  unit  Iroing  2’S.')C  per  ykilo,  an 
advance  of  O’Oac  on  tlie  Marcli  sales.  TTie  princip.il  Imyers 
wete  the  Knglisli  and  American  manufacturi'rs,  who 
bought  0,373  kilos  sulphate  of  (piinine ; the  .Auorb.icli 
factory  5,402  kilos;  Brunswick  faelory,  3,2sl  kilos; 
Mannheim  and  Amsteidam  factorie.s,  5,342  kilos;  Brank- 
fort-on-Maine  and  Stuttg.irt  factories,  3,417  kilos  ; and 
various  buyers,  3,082  kilos.  The  range  of  jn-ices  was  as 
follows  : -Manufacturing  barks,  from  7.1c  to  4U,^c  (ecjual 
to  Ijd  to  7jd  per  11).);  Druggist.s’  bark,  from  Hie  to 
155c  (equal  to  2d  to  2s  Id  p,r  \h.).— Chemist  and  Dniffpist, 
May  2nd, 
« L 
THE  CITHONELLA-OIL  CASE  IN  COURT. 
Few  persona  ni  the  drug-trade  knew  that  the  ci- 
tronella-oil  case  was  to  be  brought  before  ’Haron 
Pollock  and  Mr.  .Justice  Day  in  the  Court  of  (Queen’s 
Dench  on  Wednesday,  and  that  circumstance,  no 
doubt,  accounts  for  the  absence  from  the  court,  with 
one  or  two  exceptions,  of  the  Mincing  .Lauo  produce 
brokers  and  merchants,  whose  interests  are  touched 
so  closely  by  the  general  features  and  the  broad  prin- 
ciple of  the  case.  It  would  have  done  good  to  some 
of  the  gentlemen  who  appear  so  much  attached  to 
the  principle  (said  to  have  been  held  by  the  late  Mr. 
.John  Bright)  that  adulteration  is  only  a form  of  com- 
petition had  they  been  present  to  hear  what  the 
.Judges  thought  about  that  view.  The  case,  of  which 
a report  appears  in  our  Legal  section,  was  decided  in 
the  manner  which  from  the  beginning  hus  been 
urgued  in  this  journal  as  the  only  reasonable  one: 
it  was  remitted  to  the  arbitrators  for  reconsider- 
ation, with  a judicial  order  tliat  they  must  take 
into  account  Iho  question  of  description  as  well  as 
that  of  equality  to  sample;  aud  Mr.  Justice  Gay, 
while  c.xpresaing  his  general  concurrence  with  Baron 
Pollock’s  judgment  of  that  effect,  signilicantly  added 
tli.at,  personally,  he  would  have  felt  inclined  to  set 
the  award  aside  altogether.  Mr.  Treatt,  the  defen- 
dant, has  to  pay  the  costs  of  the  pm  ■.eedings. 
[JmA  I,  1896. 
T'ho  parcel  which  was  the  Ruhjpct  of  judicial  in- 
quiry on  Wednesday  was  the  third  one  purchased  by 
Messrs.  Uomeier  & Co.  from  Mr.  Treatt.  It  had 
been  treated  in  a ra.anner  resembling  the  first,  only 
more  so,  and  a touch  of  artistic  blending  ha  t been 
added  to  the  mixture  by  the  addition  of  10  per 
cent  of  oil  of  lemon  to  the  55  per  cent  of  kerosene 
and  i!3  per  cent  of  cetronella  oil  composing  the 
remainder.  Mr.  Chitty,  who  appeared  on  Mr. 
Treatt’s  side,  tried  hard  to  bring  in  the  question  of 
the  first  parcel,  on  which  the  arbitrator’s  award, 
given  against  Messrs.  Domeier  ife  Co.,  had  been  ac- 
cepted by  that  firm  but  it  was  rightly  held  that  that 
lot  was  to  be  considered  as  a “ dead-and-gone”  transac- 
tion. Borne  pleasantries, not  unnatural  under  the  circum- 
stances, were  made  at  the  expense  of  Mr.  Domeier's 
‘‘  thirty-five-year-old  nose,”  for  that  gentleman,  in 
an  affidavit  read  in  court,  deposed  that  ho  had  been 
identified  with  the  trade  for  thirty-five  years,  was 
considered  one  of  the  best  judges  of  essential  oils 
in  the  world,  so  far  as  his  sense  of  smell  was  con- 
cerned, and  had  failed  to  detect,  by  olfactory  exami- 
nation, any  impurity  in  the  citronella  oil  new  tn  dis- 
pute. This  only  shows  the  necessity  of  applying  tests 
more  scientilio  than  those  w'hich  the  nasal  organ 
affords  to  the  examination  of  essential  oils.  A little 
cloud  of  dust  was  also  raised  by  Mr.  Treatt’s  counsel 
on  the  question  of  price.  Pure  citronella  oil,  that 
gentleman  contended,  was  selling  in  the  market  at 
from  Is.  8.1.  to  5s.  per  lb.  at  the  time  when  Mr. 
Domeier  paid  Is,  JOd.  per  lb.  for  the  parcel  in  dis- 
pute. The  higher  price  quoted  could  have  only  re- 
ferred to  a special  brand,  and  was  certainly  not  an 
indication  of  the  market  price  of  oil  such  as  that 
contracted  for.  The  question  of  price  will  not  con- 
fuse the  arbitrators. 
When  we  first  commented  upon  the  citronella-oil  case, 
in  our  issue  of  February  29  last,  we  called  attention  to 
the  applicability  to  the  dispute  of  a clause  in  the 
Sale  of  Goods  Act  of  1893,  providing  that  if  a sale 
be  by  description  as  well  as  by  sample  the  buUc  of 
the  goods  must  correspond  with  the  description  as 
well  as  with  the  sample.  We  commended  this  section 
to  the  consideration  of  the  arbitrators,  and  were 
laughed  at  for  our  pains  by  those  luminaries.  Now 
that  the  Judge'-  have  remitted  the  case,  partly  upon 
the  strength  of  that  very  same  clause,  the  arbitra- 
tor.s,  may  po.ssibly  begin  to  grasp  the  fact  that  the 
customs  and  prejudices  of  Mincing  Lane  are  not  tlie 
alpha  and  omega  of  commercial  law.  They  are  now 
ordered  among  other  things  to  say  whether  a mixture 
comp  jsed  accordiug  to  the  formula — take  of  citroueila 
oil  3.1  parts  by  weight,  add  5.)  parts  of  kei'O- 
seiie,  mix  {secundum  arte.m),  and  flavour  with  1 part  of 
oil  of  lemon — constitutes  fair  merchantable  oil  of 
citronella.  If  they  answer  in  the  affirmative,  the 
case  may  again  Ijc  carried  into  court  by  Mr,  Do- 
mcier;  in  fact,  the  law  seems  to  put  no  limit  up- 
on the  process  of  remission.  A mistake  in  accept- 
ing or  rejecting  evidonco,  however,  is  a mistake  of 
law,  and  may  Ering  about  the  settiim  aside  of  the 
award ; and  it  has  also  been  decided  that,  when 
arbitrators  obstinately  or  recklessly  reject  evidence 
which  tliey  are  bound  to  consi.Ior  according  to  the 
contract  adjudicated  upon,  the  award  may  he  set 
a '.ide. 
Wc  have  commont-jd  rope.a'.edly  upon  this  c.ise  for 
the  past  two  mouths,  simply  because  the  Mincing 
Lane  brokers  award  appeareil  to  ns  to  stiiko  at  the 
root  of  honest  trading.  After  the  practical  admis- 
sion that  the  pai’col  of  citrouJIa  oil  now  in  dis- 
pute contained  oil  of  lemon  as  well  as  kerosiue  it 
cannot  be  seriously  maintained  that  the  oil  was 
imported  in  an  adulterated  state  from  the  produc- 
ing country,  for  the  natives  of  (leylon  or  India 
would  hardly  have  had  resort  to  oil  of  lemon.  Hi- 
therto, in  the  face  of  vigorous  and  abiy-conductea 
competition  from  abroad,  English  essoutial-oil  mer- 
chants aud  distillers  have  liol.i  their  own  mainly 
on  account  of  the,  reputation  of  th.'ir  oils  for  ex- 
cellence of  quality,  aud  wo  think  it  of  vital  im- 
portance that  anything  wiiich  might  diminsh  the 
reputation  of  thi.s  country  in  that  resp-'ct 
should  be  guarded  against.— (’Arwi.v/  and 
April  25.  • . . 
