34  Recent  Literature  Relating  to  Pharmacy .  {A ^nuary P&rm' 
plasters  in  the  June  number  of  this  Journal.  The  paragraph  in 
question  referred  to  the  authorship  of  the  method  for  assaying  bella- 
donna plasters,  used  by  the  writer  in  the  valuation  of  commercial 
plasters  reported  upon  in  the  April  number  of  this  Journal,  and 
there  credited  to  Messrs.  S.  W.  Williams  and  C.  E.  Parker,  as  joint 
authors.  As  some  readers  of  the  June  note  may  have  inferred 
that  Mr.  Williams  had  failed  to  give  credit  to  Mr.  Parker  for  his 
share  in  devising  and  improving  the  process,  it  is  due  to  Mr.  Wil- 
liams to  state  that  both  special  and  general  credit  was  given  to  Mr. 
Parker  in  the  original  publication  of  it  by  Mr.  Williams  in  the  Proc. 
of  the  Am.  Ph.  Ass.  for  1890.  The  more  recent  improvements  in 
the  method  have  been  made  by  Mr.  Parker. 
Medico-Chirurgical  College, 
Philadelphia,  November,  1898. 
RECENT  LITERATURE  RELATING  TO  PHARMACY. 
CONSTITUENTS    OF  OIL  OF  LEMON  GRASS. 
W.  Stiehl  {Journ.  Prakt.  Chemie.,  1892)  reports  the  results  of  his 
investigation  of  lemon  grass  oil,  the  product  of  Andropogon  citratus. 
From  this  oil,  Schimmel-&  Co.  (1888)  prepared  an  aldehyde  which 
they  termed  citral,  and  which  Semmler  (Berichte  24,  201)  proved 
identical  with  his  geranial,  isolated  from  the  oil  of  Andropogon 
schcenanthus.  Dodge  (Am.  Chem.  Jour.,  12,  553)  isolated  by  means 
of  sodium  bisulphite,  an  aldehyde  which  he  terms  citriodoric  alde- 
hyde, and  lastly  Barbier  and  Bowvault  (Compt.  rend.,  121,  1,159) 
isolated  a  third  aldehyde,  which  they  called  1-licarhodal. 
These  three  aldehydes  Stiehl  has  carefully  studied.  He  separates 
them  from  the  oil  by  sodium  bisulphite,  with  which  they  all  unite. 
When  sodium  hydrate  is  added  to  the  mixture,  geranial  separates  as 
a  crystalline  compound,  citriodoric  aldehyde  dissolves ;  while  1-licor- 
hodal  (or  allo-lemonal,  as  Stiehl  calls  it)  separates  as  oil.  The  three 
aldehydes  are  differentiated  by  the  melting  points  of  their  com- 
pounds with  semi-carbazid  and  of  their  naphtocinchonic  acid  deriva- 
tives and  by  the  boiling  points  of  their  acetone  condensation  products. 
All  three  possess  the  formula  C10H]6O,  and  are  aliphatic  bodies 
with  the  following  probable  constitution  formulas  : 
Geranial  £2S>C  ==  CH  —  CH2  —  CH  =  C  —  CH2  —  CHO 
CH3 
