AmApOriir,'i903arm'}       S°me  Notes  on  Essential  Oils.  163 
Oil  of  Mustard. — This  substance  appears  to  be  more  extensively 
used  in  Europe  than  in  this  country.  Oil  of  mustard  was  introduced 
into  the  United  States  Pharmacopoeia  of  1880,  but  does  not  appear 
to  have  met  with  favor  as  a  rubefacient  or  counterirritant.  This 
may  be  partially  accounted  for,  no  doubt,  by  the  fact  that  the  oil  as 
well  as  the  vapor  arising  from  it  are  acrid  and  particularly  irritating. 
Synthetic  oil  of  mustard  is  being  produced  on  a  large  scale. 
Chemically  there  is  no  available  means  of  differentiating  it  when  of 
good  quality.  The  contaminating  addition  sometimes  found  is  car- 
bon disulphide,  but  this  has  been  found  in  the  natural  as  well 
as  the  artificial  oil.  Under  careless  methods  of  manipulation  the 
natural  oil  may  contain  appreciable  quantities  of  allyl  cyanide,  and 
in  this  one  feature  at  least  the  artificial  oil  appears  to  have  some 
advantage  over  the  natural. 
Oil  of  Peppermint. — The  available  supply  of  this  oil  is  decidedly 
below  the  average, and  in  addition  to  this,  speculative  purchasers  have 
driven  the  price  of  the  American  product  up  to  unheard-of  figures. 
Schimmel  &  Co.,  in  their  report,  give  a  list  of  quotations  for  this 
article,  during  the  past  twelve  years.  Beginning  on  October  1st, 
1890,  with  $2.50  per  pound,  the  price  rose  to  $3  in  1892,  and  then 
declined  steadily,  reaching  the  abnormally  low  figure  of  80  cents  in 
1899.  This  was  of  course  much  below  the  normal  cost  of  produc- 
tion and  resulted  in  the  discontinuance  of  production  on  the  part  of 
many  American  farmers.  With  a  corresponding  decrease  in  the 
available  supply  prices  gradually  advanced,  reaching  the  $2  mark 
on  October  1,  1902.  From  this  the  price,  due  to  speculative  influ- 
ences, reached  the  abnormally  high  quotation  of  $5  a  pound  before 
the  end  of  the  year. 
The  production  of  Japanese  as  well  as  English  oil  of  peppermint 
has  also  been  rather  below  the  average,  while  the  demand  has  been 
steadily  increasing. 
Germany  has  entered  the  field  as  a  producer  of  oil  of  peppermint, 
furnishing  a  considerable  quantity  of  oil  of  very  fine  quality. 
According  to  Schimmel  &  Co.  the  Saxon  oil  of  peppermint  has 
reached  the  highest  degree  of  perfection  and  should  be  able  to  com- 
pete with  the  English  distillate. 
An  Italian  oil  of  peppermint  has  also  been  offered  on  the 
European  market.  Schimmel  &  Co.  say  this  was  formerly  con- 
sumed in  that  country  and  not  much  exported.    The  oil  has  rather 
