rejtamber 21,1872.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTION?. 
231 
from one thousand of the root. Professor Attfield will 
remember that some years ago he saw several ounces of it. 
Mr. Hanbury : Is that the substance that is described 
as orris camphor in Gmelin ? 
Mr. Umney : It may be. I may remark that it is a 
very expensive oil, more so, perhaps, than otto of rose. 
Professor Wayne asked whether the essential oil con¬ 
tained all the odorous principle of the orris root. 
Mr. Umney : The essential oil dissolved in spirit has 
a very powerful odour. 
_ The President : The question is whether there is any 
oil left in the residue after distillation. 
Mr. Umney : I should say not, as distillation would 
he continued until the root no longer yielded oil. 
Professor Wayne : I thought the odorous principle of 
orris root depended upon the soft resin more than upon 
the essential oil. I think it will he found that the soft 
resin contains the odorous principle, and that the odour 
of the essential oil depends upon its containing some of 
the soft resin accidentally. 
Professor Attfield : Although I have every intention 
of examining into this question I have not done so at 
present. From what I remember I think the substance 
shown to me by Mr. Umney was probably a mixture of 
definite chemical substances. 
Note on Guaiacol. 
BY JOHN WILLIAMS, F.C.S. 
In a recent number of the Pharmaceutical Journal 
(No. 92, third series, page 788) attention was drawn to 
the statement that creasote consisted mainly of a body 
called “ Guaiacol’’ and which was a product of the 
destructive distillation of gum guaiacum. As this ap¬ 
peared to be a fact of some interest I determined to 
prepare a little of the substance and compare its pro¬ 
perties with those of the ordinary creasote of commerce. 
The process of preparing it is as follows:—Gum 
guaiacum reduced to powder is exposed in a shallow 
iron pan to considerable heat, sufficient to cause the com¬ 
mencement of charring, and until every trace of water 
is driven off. We thus avoid the frothing, which other¬ 
wise renders the distillation of the gum a very difficult 
matter. . W hen the mass has been thus heated for some 
time it is transferred to an iron retort, furnished with 
a long iron tube, to act as a condenser. The heat 
must be increased gradually to low redness, and continued 
as long as any tarry matter continues to distil. In this 
way a product is obtained amounting to about one-third 
the weight of the gum employed. 
. PMs tar is again placed in an iron retort and dis¬ 
tilled, when it yields about one-third of its bulk of a 
light brown oily liquid. This brown oil is treated with 
a solution of caustic soda, which dissolves a part of the 
oil, but leaves a considerable quantity which must be 
separated and rejected. The alkaline solution of the 
oil is now placed in a retort and subjected to prolonged 
distillation, water being added from time to time, to 
make up ioi that which distils over. In this way a 
quantity of light oily matter passes over, having a very 7 
offensive smell, and floating on water. This is to be 
rejected, and when no more oil is observed to pass over, 
the alkaline solution in the retort is diluted, and a slight 
excess of sulphuric acid added, by which means a dark 
coloured heavy oil is separated. This is distilled, and 
the oily product again treated with caustic soda and dis¬ 
tilled as before, by which means a further small quantity 
of the light oil is separated. This alkaline solution on 
exposure to air soon turns of a very dark brown, almost 
black colour, and when an acid is added after a few days 
a very dark purple coloured oil is deposited. This oil 
distilled gives a light yellowish oily liquid, which after 
several distillations yields a colourless heavy oily* liquid, 
which is the pure or nearly pure guaiacol. 
Guaiacol is an oily liquid, considerably 
water; it is quite white when first distilled, but soon 
assumes a pale straw colour. Its smell is characteristic 
of creasote, but not so disagreeable as some of the samples 
of that body found in commerce. The sample I have 
made begins to boil at 200° C, and soon rises to 210°, 
at which point eight-tenths distil over, and the remainder 
comes over at 215°. Pure creasote is stated in the 
books to boil at 210°. Guaiacol refracts light strongly, 
and has the taste as well as the general physical proper¬ 
ties of creasote. It is soluble in glacial acetic acid, but 
insoluble in pure glycerine. 
It appeared interesting to compare this body with 
creasote as found in commerce, more especially as some 
attention has lately been drawn to the fact, that creasote 
is sometimes sold consisting mainly of carbolic or 
cry 7 sylic acid, or other products of the distillation of coal 
instead of, as it ought to be, of wood. 
In commerce we find two kinds of creasote, said to be 
derived from wood, one well known in England, manu¬ 
factured by Messrs. Morson and Son,—which I shall 
call “ English ” creasote—is said to be made from Stock¬ 
holm tar, and if so, is the product of pine-wood probably. 
The other, of German manufacture, is said to be the 
product of beech-wood. Of the common German coal- 
tar creasote, I have made no especial note, but have 
employed pure carbolic acid in all cases to represent 
the coal tar or phenylic product. 
English creasote commences to boil at 100°, but 
almost immediately rises to 213°, at which about six 
per cent, passes over; the temperature then rising to 
216°, at which about 34 per cent, passes over; then to 
222°, when about 34 per cent, again distils, and then 
rises to 231°, when 16 per cent, is obtained, the re¬ 
mainder distilling at a still higher temperature. We 
thus find that this is a hydrated product, and that its 
boiling-point is considerably higher than the proper 
boiling-point of creasote as represented by Guaiacol. 
# German creasote commences to boil at 200°, gradually 
rising to 220°, 40 per cent, comes over under 203°, 34 
per cent, at 210°, and 16 per cent, under 220°, thus 
boiling rather lower than it should for pure creasote, 
but apparently not containing much of the higher 
homologues. 
Carbolic acid boils at 180°, and, when pure, its boil¬ 
ing-point is quite constant. 
English creasote is insoluble in pure gly T cerine, as 
stated by 7 Mr. Morson, in the Pharmaceutical Journal, 
No. 99, page 921. 
German creasote is soluble in gly r cerine. 
Carbolic acid dissolves in glycerine in all propor¬ 
tions. 
As I have before stated, guaiacol is not soluble in 
glycerine; it therefore became of great interest to find 
out, if possible, why the German creasote should be 
soluble, and thus differ from the guaiacol and English 
creasote, more especially as I found that the addition of, 
say 50 per cent, of carbolic acid to either guaiacol or 
English creasote, causes them to become perfectly 
soluble in glycerine. It thus becomes very important 
that we should, if possible, devise a mode of detecting 
the presence of carbolic acid in pure creasote. 
For this purpose recourse was had to Professor Fliicki- 
ger’s process as described in Pharmaceutical Jour¬ 
nal, No. 103, page 1008. It consists in adding creasote 
(.or carbolic acid) to a very small quantity of perchlo- 
ride of iron in solution, then adding alcohol and after¬ 
wards diluting considerably with water. If carbolic 
acid alone is employed a beautiful blue colour is pro¬ 
duced, but if creasote, a dingy brownish liquid is the 
result. Now this test distinguishes between pure crea¬ 
sote and pure carbolic acid perfectly 7 , but when I at¬ 
tempted to use it as a means of detecting the pre¬ 
sence of carbolic acid in creasote it quite failed, the 
jrown creasote reaction quite masking the blue uro- 
duced by the carbolic acid. I tried various propor¬ 
tions, and in no instance could I obtain a reaction I 
heavier than [ 
