566 
Analysis  of  Essential  Oils. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
I    December,  1899. 
back  on  the  manufacturer  would,  in  these  particular  cases,  not  be 
an  evil  to  be  regretted,  but  a  positive  gain,  as  it  seems  to  be  the 
only  way  by  which  a  practical  uniformity  in  such  variable  drugs 
as  are  mentioned  above  can  be  brought  about. 
To  sum  up,  the  writer  offers  the  following  recommendations : 
(1)  That  the  next  Committee  of  Revision  be  authorized  to  intro- 
duce Doses  into  the  Pharmacopoeia  (details  to  be  left  to  the  Com- 
mittee). 
(2)  That  the  Committee  be  authorized  to  introduce  such  of  the 
Newer  Remedies  as  fulfil  the  conditions  above  mentioned. 
(3)  That  the  Committee  be  instructed  to  extend  the  principle  of 
standardization  to  as  many  of  the  potent  drugs,  and  preparations 
made  from  them,  as  may  be  found  possible,  but  that  no  physiologi- 
cal tests  be  introduced  at  the  next  revision. 
New  York,  November  14,  1899. 
THE  ANALYSIS  OF  ESSENTIAL  OILS. 
By  Clemens  KXeber, 
Director  of  Fritzsche  Brothers'  Laboratories,  Garfield,  N.  J. 
The  systematic  analysis  of  essential  oils  is  one  of  the  youngest 
branches  of  organic  chemistry.  It  is  true  that  a  number  of  the 
constituents  of  these  oils  have  attracted  the  attention  of  chemists  at 
a  very  early  date,  especially  such  as  crystallize  out  from  the  oils  on 
standing  in  the  cold,  like  camphor,  anethol,  menthol  and  others,  or 
such  with  a  pronounced  chemical  function,  like  eugenol  (then  called 
eugenic  acid,  on  account  of  its  being  combinable  with  alkali);  but 
proper  systematic  researches  in  this  interesting  group  of  natural 
bodies  were  not  possible  before  the  excellent  investigations  of  Wal- 
lach,  Semmler,  Tieman  and  others  had  furnished  the  clew  for  the 
separation  and  identification  of  the  component  parts  of  these  pecu- 
liar substances.  It  is,  however,  still  to-day  impossible — and  will, 
perhaps,  in  consequence  of  the  complication  and  the  peculiar  nature 
of  a  great  part  of  the  substances  in  question,  ever  be  so — to  isolate, 
qualitatively  and  quantitatively,  all  the  constituents  of  an  essential 
oil  by  following  a  fixed  scheme  like  that  which  has  been  worked  out 
for  an  organic  analysis,  be  it  only  for  the  reason  that  the  list  of 
bodies  occurring  in  essential  oils  is  still  far  from  being  complete, 
and  that  every  new  investigation  may  result  in  the  detection  of 
