36 
It may bo pointed out that the solution in weak potash of this external 
coating would be utilised by soap-makers. Nothing need be wasted. 
Another method which may be suggested is to treat the Sandarac with 
rectified spirit. The resin at once assumes a beautifully fresh appearance, while 
both the spirit and the dissolved resin may be readily recovered, as every soap or 
varnish maker knows. 
Picking and grading can be done by children with facility into two or three 
sorts ; and Mr. Ingham Clark’s advice not to neglect this, should be borne in mind, 
for it will pay. In a mixed parcel the price tends to that of the most inferior 
portion of it. 
I reiterate the statement made in one of my articles, that the collection of 
Sandarac from our Cypress Pines will pay. I say there is money in it, and it will 
not only pay children to collect but grown-up people too. Seventy shillings per 
hundredweight leaves a handsome sum to the collector when all expenses are paid, 
and inasmuch as in many districts large quantities are available, particularly where 
the pines have been ringbarked or felled. 
My experiments tend to show this : Given similar circumstances in regard to 
size aud age of tree, season of flow, climatic conditions, &c., the Sandaracs from 
all the species are precisely similar in chemical and physical properties. Conversely 
it follows, that if two specimens of Sandarac are of different qualities, the 
explanation is to be found in the circumstances above enumerated. What is the 
best season to collect Sandarac or to bleed trees in a particular district is only to be 
learned by experience, and I think I have said enough to show that it is worth the 
trouble to try and find out. 
Dr. T. A. Henry has recently published a valuable and exhaustive research 
on the Cypress Pine Resins or Sandaracs.* He examined the North African 
Callitris ( Tetraclinis ) quadrivalvis and the Australian C. verrucosa. He finds the 
resins to be identical in composition, and to consist of a mixture of resin acids and 
terpenes, separable by steam distillation. Prom the latter pinene has been isolated 
and identified. Two resin acids have been isolated and examined : one is named 
inactive pimaric acid, and for the other the name callitrollic acid has been retained. 
The research was carried out in the laboratories of the Imperial Institute, London, 
of which Mr. Wyndham Duns tan is Director. 
According to Balzer (Archiv. d. Pharm. 234, p. 311), Sandarac from C. 
( Tetraclinis ) quadrivalvis contains about 1 p.c. of volatile oil, which can be obtained 
by steam distillation. The oil has a brownish colour, a pleasant strongly aromatic 
odour, reminding of the odour of pines. In the cold it becomes viscid, and 
apparently separates a steareoptene-like substance. (“ The Volatile Oils,” Gilde- 
meister and Hoffman, Kremers’ trans., p. 267. 
* “A Chemical Investigation of the Constituents of African anil Australian Sandarac Resins .”—(Imperial Institute, 
Technical Reports and Scientific Papers, i, 133-157 ; Proc. Chem. Soc., xvii, 187.) 
