Am:i°rnr;]P9!)3arm'}       Some  Notes  on  Essential  Oils.  159 
Inquiry  among  manufacturers'  agents  elicited  the  assertion  that  it 
was  quite  feasible  to  furnish,  at  a  reasonable  price,  chemically  pure 
benzaldehyde,  absolutely  free  from  any  trace  of  chlorine. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  natural  oil  of  bitter  almonds  contains  a 
variable  amount  of  a  very  poisonous  chemical — hydrocyanic  acid — 
and  which,  in  this  country  at  least,  is  never  taken  into  considera- 
tion when  using  preparations  made  from  the  oil,  would  it  not  be  in 
keeping  with  modern  ideas  of  progress  to  adopt  synthetic  oil  of 
bitter  almonds,  or  rather  purified  benzaldehyde,  as  oil  of  bitter 
almonds  in  future  editions  of  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  ? 
If  a  physician  wishes  to  prescribe  hydrocyanic  acid  he  can  readily 
add  any  desired  amount  of  the  official  diluted  acid,  while  as  a  culi- 
nary flavor  an  alcoholic  solution  of  benzaldehyde  would  certainly  be 
preferable  to  an  essence  containing  a  variable  amount  of  a  very  active 
poison.  As  for  pharmacopoeial  tests,  it  should  be  less  difficult  to 
describe  and  give  tests  for  a  definite  chemical  compound  of  known 
and  fixed  composition  than  for  the  present  variable  natural  product. 
Oil  of  Cinnamon. — What  is  sold  in  commerce  as  oil  of  cinnamon 
varies  from  a  very  cheap  grade  of  oil  of  cassia  to  the  finest  oil  of 
Ceylon  cinnamon,  the  latter  costing  fully  thirty  times  as  much  as 
the  former.  By  far  the  greatest  amount  of  what  is  sold  in  the  drug 
trade  as  oil  of  cinnamon,  is  Chinese  oil  ot  cassia,  the  official  U.S  P. 
oil. 
The  general  quality  of  this  oil  has  been  much  improved  in  the  last 
decade,  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  now  generally  bought  and 
sold  in  the  wholesale  trade  at  prices  based  on  the  actual  cinnamic 
aldehyde  content.  Schimmel  &  Co.  say  that  the  bulk  of  the  avaiL 
able  oil  is  even  at  the  present  time  of  medium  quality,  with  a  cin- 
namic aldehyde  content  of  from  65  to  75  per  cent.  Oils  having  an 
aldehyde  content  of  from  80  to  85  per  cent,  are  readily  obtainable, 
however,  and  represent  about  one-fourth  the  total  exports  from 
China. 
The  use  of  oil  of  Ceylon  cinnamon  is  largely  restricted  to  perfum- 
ers and  manufacturers  of  soap.  It  is  official  in  the  British  Phar- 
macopoeia, but  has  no  evident  advantage  over  oil  of  cassia.  The 
latter,  on  account  of  the  higher  amount  of  cinnamic  aldehyde  pres- 
ent has,  if  anything,  more  value  from  a  medical  point  of  view. 
Oil  of  cinnamon  offers  the  anomalous  condition  that  owing  to  the 
present  depressed  market  conditions  the  artificial  product  is  unable 
