president’s ADDRESS — SECTION B. 
58 
For practically the whole of the exact knowledge of the compost- 
tion of our Sandalwood oils, we are indebted to the enterprise of the 
celebrated essential oil firm of Schimmel and Co., of Leipzig, Germany, 
and my notes are mainly taken from their Berichte. ’ Western 
Australian Sandalwood has been exploited for very many years, having 
been probably discovered by Malays at a very early period. It is 
chiefly exported to Singapore and China for burning* in temples, and 
to give some idea of the magnitude of the trade, 4,470 tons, valued 
at £38,525, were exported thence in 1889, and this was by no means 
the highest yearly export. But it was not until 1890 that Sandalwood 
oil in bulk was placed upon the London market. It had, however, 
for at least five years previously been tested by medical men in the 
colonies * and particulars are given in regard to its specific gravity 
solubility in spirit, &c.+ The makers in Western Australia give the 
specific gravity of the oil from young and full-grown wood as varying 
between 0*965 and 0*969, but Schimmel and Co. give it at 0*953, and 
its optical rotation at — 5 U 20' as compared with East Indian at 0*957 
and rotation — 17° 20'. The above oil is from Fusanus spicatus. 
Schimmel and Co. variously describe the oil as “ resinous,” and as 
having “ a disagreeable acrid odour resembling turpentine,” At 
present I do not speak from personal knowledge of this oil, as an 
application I made to the firm in Western Australia for a sample was 
not even acknowledged, but I am inclined to think that improved 
methods in distillation and rectification may remove the very unfavour- 
able impression which has been formed in regard to it. 
E. A. Cripps, in his “ Note on Sandalwood and Cedar Oils ,”+ 
makes some comparative tests with the Western Australian oil. 
Schimmel and Co. having imported 75 kilo, of the wood of Fusanus 
acuminatus from South Australia, obtained no less than 3 kilo. 
800 grin, of oil from it. “The w r ood, therefore, contains a good 
5 per cent, of oil, and is one of the richest Sandalwoods for 
on. In many respects the latter is characteristic and interesting ; 
it is viscid, and of a cherry-red colour. At 15° C. its sp. gr. 
is 1*022.” § The oil possesses the property of solidifying °at 
moderate temperatures, and separating acicular crystals, so that, 
m the process of distillation, the cooling must be’ very carefully 
effected, otherwise the condensing tubes become blocked.§ This 
body has been obtained pure by repeating re-crystallisation. It forms 
colourless crystals which melt at 104° to 105°. The body seems 
to be of the nature of an alcohol.|| Subsequently A. Berkenheim1[ 
investigated this crystalline substance, verifying the surmise of 
Schimmel and Co. that it is of the nature of an alcohol. Its meltino- 
point he, however, gives at 101° to 103°, and its formula as 
C i 6 H 24 0. For further particulars 1 must refer rny hearers to the 
original memoir. For an account of a microscopicar examination of 
the wood, with drawings, see Pharrn. Jo urn. [3], xvi., 759. 
Baron von Mueller suppresses Fusanus , merging this genus in 
Santalum . Probably the whole of the species have wood more or less 
Chemist and Druggist, 28th March and 4th April, 1891. 
f Bericht, April, 1891, p. 5 6. J Pharrn. Journ. [3], xxiii., 461. 
§ Bericht, April, 1891, 63. || Bericht, October, 1891, 45. 
fj. Russ Chem Soc., xxiv., 688; Journ. Chem. Soc., lxiv., 666; Schimmel ’s, 
Bericht, April, 1894, 50, * 
