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PRESERVATION  OF  VOLATILE  OILS. 
ON  THE  PKESEEVATION  OF  VOLATILE  OILS. 
By  Alfred  B,  Taylor. 
While  the  importance  and  the  difficulty  of  preserving  the  vola- 
tile oils  from  the  deterioration  to  which  they  are  all  so  prone  are 
universally  recognized  by  the  pharmaceutist,  the  two  great  de- 
structive agencies  by  which  they  are  beset  are  so  universally  dif- 
fused, that  there  seems  to  be  little  that  can  be  suggested  beyond 
what  is  familiarly  known,  calculated  to  secure  the  great  desidera- 
tum. So  far  as  we  are  at  present  aware,  the  only  decomposing 
influences  to  which  they  are  usually  exposed,  and  by  which  they 
are  likely  to  be  attacked,  are  atmospheric  oxygen  and  light, 
(to  which  latter  might  be  added  its  natural  analogue — heat.) 
Whether  these  agents  are  merely  co-operative,  or  whether  they 
are  indpendent, — that  is,  whether  heat  and  light  merely  present 
more  favorable  conditions,  whereby  the  affinities  of  the  air  for 
the  oils  are  enhanced  and  accelerated, — or  whether  they  are  ca- 
pable of  exerting  their  own  specific  action  in  disturbing  the  prim- 
itive structure  of  the  oils  themselves,  has  not  been  definitely  es- 
tablished, and  would  require  a  course  of  tedious  and  difficult  ex- 
periment certainly  to  determine. 
Inasmuch  as  the  bottles  from  which  the  apothecary  must  dis- 
pense these  oils  are  necesarily  uncovered  very  frequently,  and 
exposed  to  the  air  almostconstantly,  it  is  evidently  of  the  first  im- 
portance that  this  evil  should  be  reduced  to  a  minimum  by  using 
bottles  of  the  smallest  practicable  size,  containing  not  more  than 
the  retail  supply  for  a  week  or  so,  and  that  these  should  be  very 
closely  stopped ;  or,  in  others  words,  that  the  bulk  of  any  one  of 
the  said  oils  in  store  should  be  distributed  among  a  number  of 
small  receptacles,  so  that  each  one  may  be  exposed  to  opening 
for  but  a  short  period,  and  at  the  same  time  may  expose,  within 
the  receptacle,  but  a  small  surface,  to  a  small  volume  of  inclosed 
air.  If  this  expedient  of  division  were  more  generally  resorted 
to,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  apothecary  would  have  the  sat- 
isfaction generally  of  dispensing  a  much  "fresher  "  article,  and 
would  in  that  satisfaction  be  fully  compensated  for  the  increased 
trouble  or  expense  attendant  on  the  multiplication  of  containing 
vessels,  and  their  storage  bulk.    It  would  perhaps  facilitate,  and 
