14 
Indian Forest Records. 
[VoL. IX 
and the esters of hexoic, heptoic and stearic acids together with 
sesquiterpene alcohols. As the residt of their investigation the 
authors can in the main confirm Robert’s results. They have 
foimd the ketonic content to be somewhat higher, 8 to 10 per cent, 
whilst no phenol could be detected. No evidence of the presence of 
heptoic or stearic acids was found by the authors but butyric or iso- 
butyric acid and hexoic acids were isolated and in addition an 
unidentified crystalline acid melting at 110°. 
There can be little doubt that as suggested by Roberts the ketone 
present in the oil, which he did not succeed in obtaining pure, is p- 
methyl-/\®-tetrahydroacetophenone. The authors have succeeded in 
separating this ketone in a pure state and have identified it by 
conversion into its semicarbazone, oxime and dibromooxime which 
have the melting points given by Wallach and Rahn (Annalen. 1902. 
324. 91.). When warmed with concentrated sulphuric acid it was 
converted into p-tolyl methyl ketone but they are unable to confirm 
the statement made by Roberts (loc. cit. p. 793.) that when the 
semicarbazone of the tetrahydroketone is treated with dilute sulphuric 
acid and distilled in steam p-tolyl methyl ketone is formed. Under 
the conditions used by the authors the pure tetrahydroketone was 
regenerated. 
It was not found possible to identify either the sesquiterpene or the 
sesquiterpene alcohol since they yielded no crystalline derivatives. 
Professor W. H. Perkin, F. R. S. of the University of Oxford 
kindly had a sample of the oil valued in England. He informed us that 
the oil might find a small market as a substitute for oil of cedar wood 
in soap perfumery. Its value would however only be 2/6 per lb. It 
is obvious that at this price it would not prove remunerative to convert 
logs into sawdust and distil over the oil in steam. On the other hand 
it would appear to be a matter for consideration whether it would 
not prove remunerative to distil the logs themselves and to use the crude 
wood oil thus obtained as a timber preservative. Further experiments 
in this direction would appear desirable. 
Experimental. 
The constants of the oil used in this investigation are given in 
Table 1. The oil, which was deep reddish brown in colour, had a pleasant 
and characteristic odour. Prior to distillation, the oil was shaken with 
dilute sodium hydroxide solution (N/2) to remove the free acids and 
any phenols present and then boiled for some hours with alcoholic 
potassium hydroxide solution to hydrolyse the esters. The residual 
r 124 1 
