Am'NJoTr\9Pi8arm  }      Industrial  Organic  Chemistry.  801 
increased  sixfold  since  1914,  now  amounting  to  over  eight  million 
gallons. 
A  year  ago  Ave  had  no  castor-beans  grown  in  this  country  to 
speak  of — today  we  have  at  government  instigation  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  acres  devoted  to  it  in  Florida  and  elsewhere  and  the 
product  contracted  for  by  the  government.  As  illustrating  the 
greatly  increased  demand  for  oils  capable  of  yielding  food  products 
we  may  also  note  the  remarkable  growth  in  the  cocoanut  oil  and 
copra  importations.  In  1914  the  importations  of  cocoanut  oil 
amounted  to  74,386,213  lbs.;  in  1918  it  had  grown  to  289,194,853 
lbs. ;  of  copra  for  the  expressing  of  cocoanut  oil  we  imported  45,- 
437,155  lbs.  in  1914,  and  in  1918,  486,996,112  lbs.  Similar  changes 
have  taken  place  in  the  fish-oil  markets  with  the  decrease  in  the 
menhaden  catch,  due  to  the  commandeering  of  fishing  boats'  and 
scarcity  of  men  to  man  them.  Through  our  Pacific  ports  chiefly  are 
imported  quantities  of  dog-fish,  halibut,  salmon,  sardine,  shark, 
tuna-fish,  candle-fish  and  walrus  oils,  largely  new  to  the  market, 
while  whale  oil,  seal  oil  and  porpoise  oils  are  again  appearing  .in 
large  quantities.  These  fish  oils  have  moreover  an  added  value  as 
sources  of  supply  since  the  general  application  of  the  hydrogenation 
process,  whereby  they  can  be  changed  into  hardened  fats  without 
offensive  odor  and  of  the  greatest  value  as  soap  stock  and  for 
glycerine  production. 
With  regard  to  the  increased  production  of  glycerine  because  of 
the  war  demand,  I  have  no  figures,  but  the  demand  has  been  so  very 
great  that  the  use  of  glycerine  in  pharmaceutical  preparations  has 
been  discouraged  in  order  to  conserve  the  glycerine  for  nitroglycerine 
production,  and  for  export  to  our  allies,  21  million  pounds  having 
been  exported  in  1918. 
In  the  field  of  essential  oils  there  are  a  few  items  of  interest  to 
note.  With  the  study  of  wood  turpentines  as  distinguished  from 
gum  turpentine,  it  has  been  recognized  that  spruce  wood  turpentine, 
now  a  waste  product  of  the  sulphite  process  of  making  paper-pulp, 
has  a  peculiar  composition.  It  consists  largely  of  one  aromatic 
hydrocarbon,  cymene  (iso-propyl-methyl-benzene) .  On  subjecting 
this  to  the  Friedel  and  Crafts  reaction  with  aluminum  chloride  in 
the  presence  of  an  excess  of  benzene,  toluene  and  cumene  (propyl- 
benzene)  are  formed.  The  toluene  is  readily  converted  into  T.  N. 
T.  (tri-nitro-toluene)  and  the  cumene  may  be  oxidized  directly  into 
benzoic  acid.    The  work,  as  reported  in  the  Journal  of  Ind.  and 
