24 
Podophyllum  Emodi. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Jan.,  1893. 
much  as  it  did  sandal-wood  oil.  It  is  evident  that  either  the  sam- 
ple is  not  a  genuine  one  at  all,  or  long  keeping  has  so  modified  its 
characters  as  to  render  it  unlike  the  English  oil. 
Conclusions. — Finally,  in  the  light  of  these  results,  and  those 
obtained  by  other  workers  as  referred  to  above,  I  would  suggest 
that  the  official  description  of  the  characters  and  tests  of  sandal- 
wood oil  should  be  modified  as  follows  :  "  Thick  in  consistence, 
pale  yellow  or  nearly  colorless,  possessing  a  strongly  aromatic  odor, 
a  pungent  and  spicy  flavor,  and  a  neutral  or  slightly  acid  reaction. 
Its  specific  gravity  should  not  be  below  -970.  At  6o°  F.  (15-5°  C.j 
it  forms  a  clear  or  at  most  a  faintly  opalescent  solution  with  five 
times  its  volume  of  a  mixture  of  five  fluid  parts  of  rectified  spirit 
with  one  fluid  part  of  distilled  water.  It  rotates  the  plane  of 
polarization  of  a  ray  of  polarized  light  strongly  to  the  left.  Two 
drops  of  the  oil  added  to  six  drops  of  nitric  acid,  sp.  gr.  1*5  on 
a  white  tile  should  give  a  yellow  to  bright  reddish-brown  colora- 
tion, without  any  green,  indigo,  or  violet  tint  at  the  edges  during 
five  minutes.  For  complete  saponification  in  alcoholic  solution,  it 
requires  not  more  than  I  per  cent,  of  potassium  hydrate."  It  is 
not  improbable  that  further  experience  will  show  that  these  tests 
are  not  sufficiently  restrictive,  for  although  they  would  detect  com- 
paratively small  additions  of  cedar-wood,  copaiba,  or  castor  oils,  or 
turpentine,  they  would  fail  in  the  case  of  small  quantities  of  West 
Australia  or  West  Indian  sandal-wood  oils. 
These  experiments  were  conducted  in  the  laboratories  of  Messrs. 
Southall  Bros.,  and  Barclay,  to  whom  my  thanks  are  due. — Phar. 
Jour,  and  Trans.,  Dec.  10,  1892,  p.  461. 
PODOPHYLLUM  EMODI.1 
By  John  C.  Umney. 
This  Himalayan  drug,  which  was  the  subject  of  a  communication 
by  Dymock  and  Hooper  to  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal '([3],  xix, 
585),  has  recently  been  imported  in  considerable  quantity,  possibly 
owing  to  the  opinion  there  expressed  of  its  richness  in  resin,  which 
"  produced  unmistakable  cathartic  effects."  The  chief  botanical 
characters  of  the  rhizome  have  been  described  by  those  authors; 
and  the  quantity  of  resin  determined  by  the  official  process  for  the 
1  From  Yearbook  of  Pharmac}',  1892,  p.  395. 
