Am*May^8S9arm"}      Congealing  Point  of  Oil  of  Anise.  255 
THE  CONGEALING  POINT  OF  OIL  OF  ANISE.1 
By  John  C.  Umney. 
The  commerce  of  oil  of  anise  would  seem  to  have  changed  materially 
since  the  time  when  the  editors  of  the  Pharm.  Lond.,  1851,  wrote : 
"  Anise  oil  is  stated  to  be  adulterated  with  oil  of  star- anise,  which  is 
sometimes  sold  for  that  of  anise." 
At  the  present  time  by  far  the  greater  portion  of  anise  oil  of  trade 
is  that  of  star-anise ;  indeed,  I  am  informed  on  very  high  authority 
that  for  every  pound  of  "  aniseeds  "  oil  (Pimpinella  Anisum),  one  would 
meet  with  a  thousand  pounds  or  even  more  of  "  star-anise  "  oil  (Illi- 
cium  anisatum).  That  star-anise  oil  was  largely  imported  as  far  back 
as  1838  is  certain  from  reference  to  a  circular  issued  in  that  year  on 
the  authority  of  the  "  Druggists7  Club/'  on  the  import  of  drugs  (and 
among  them  star-anise  oil)  from  China  and  the  East  Indies,  and  the 
conditions  on  which  they  should  be  sold  on  entering  the  Port  of  Lon- 
don. I  have  no  exact  information  as  to  whether  the  oil  was  used  at 
that  time  for  pharmaceutical  or  confectionery  purposes.  I  have 
learned  from  my  father  that  it  was  formerly  the  custom  to  mix  much 
of  the  star-anise  oil  sold  in  the  Port  of  London,  in  large  cisterns,  which 
process  was  termed  "  working/'  and  according  as  this  had  been  per- 
formed or  not  the  product  was  sold  by  brokers  as  "  worked "  or 
"  unworked  "  oil.  This  manipulation  has  of  late  years  been  looked 
upon  as  unnecessary,  and  I  think  rightly  so,  for  a  recent  examination 
of  trade  samples  obtained  from  ten  London  wholesale  druggists  proves 
conclusively  that  unusual  uniformity  exists,  and  that  "  bulking  "  the 
oils,  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  half  a  century  ago,  is  now 
unnecessary  (see  Table  B.). 
The  author  quotes  the  descriptions  of  oil  of  anise  as  given  by  the 
London  Pharmacopoeia  of  1851,  the  British  Pharmacopoeias  of  1864 
and  1885,  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia,  and  by  Pharmacographia, 
and  suggests  that  the  statements  as  to  the  solidifying  points  must  have 
been  based  on  one  common  authority,  who,  it  would  seem,  fell  into  an 
error  in  its  determination. 
Before  I  allude  to  the  changes  that  take  place  at  the  moment  at 
which  anise  oils  solidify,  I  should  like  to  refer  to  the  well-known  fact 
that  some  liquids,  such,  for  example,  as  water,  saline  solutions,  etc., 
1  Eead  before  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  of  Great  Britain,  at  an  Evening 
Meeting  in  London,  Wednesday,  February  13  ;  reprinted  from  Phar.  Jour,  and 
Trans.,  Feb.  16,  p.  647. 
