THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
JUNE,  1889. 
OIL  OF  CAMPHOR. 
Contribution  from  the  Chemical  Laboratory  of  the  Philadelphia  College  of 
Pharmacy.    No.  52. 
By  Henry  Trimble  and  Hermann  J.  M.  Schrceter. 
Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  May  21. 
From  the  literature  of  camphor  oil  we  find  that  no  two  investiga- 
tors have  obtained  the  same  or  even  similar  results.  The  physical 
descriptions  of  the  oil  are  so  different  as  to  lead  one  inevitably  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  commercial  oil  is  a  variable  article.  With  this 
idea  in  mind  we  collected  eight  samples  from  different  sources  in  Phila- 
delphia and  New  York,  and  first  made  a  preliminary  examination  of 
them  with  the  following  results : 
No.  I.  was  obtained  of  Mr.  Samuel  F.  Simes  of  Philadelphia,  who 
assured  us  that  this  sample  correctly  represented  the  crude  oil  from 
Japan.  It  had  a  reddish-brown  color,  a  specific  gravity  of  0*9632  at 
16°  C,  and  a  boiling  point  of  180°  C.  The  odor  strongly  resembled 
that  of  camphor  and  sassafras. 
No.  II.  from  Fritzsche  Brothers,  New  York,  was  of  a  darker  brown 
color,  much  darker  than  No.  I.  It  had  a  specific  gravity  of  0*9819 
at  16°  C,  boiling  point  of  180°  C,  and  an  odor  of  camphor  and  sas- 
safras. 
No.  III.  was  likewise  from  Fritzsche  Brothers,  and  was  marked 
"  German."  It  had  a  sp.  gr.  of  0*8877  at  16°  C,  and  a  boiling  point 
of  170°  C.  It  was  colorless,  with  terebinthinate  and  mild  camphor 
odor. 
No.  IV.  from  a  wholesale  drug  firm  of  Philadelphia  was  probably 
18 
