ABM0a"]mrni,l       S°me  Notes  on  Essential  Oils.  219 
The  second  thought  is  that  wherever  practicable  the  Pharmaco- 
poeia should  direct  that  the  active  constituent  of  essential  oils  be 
used  in  place  of  the  whole  product. 
Bearing  these  two  points  in  mind,  let  us  first  take  a  survey  of  the 
following  table  giving  the  quantity  and  average  price  per  pound  of 
the  more  popular  oils  of  the  orange  group.  The  accompanying  fig- 
ures have  been  copied  from  the  annual  reports  of  the  United  States 
Treasury  Department,  of  the  imports  for  consumption,  for  the  fiscal 
years  ending  June  30th. 
TABLE  No.  r. 
QUANTITIES  IN  POUNDS  AND  AVERAGE  PRICE   PER   UNIT   OF   QUANTITY  OF  THE  ESSENTIAL 
OILS  OF  THE  CITRUS  GROUP  IMPORTED  INTO  THE  UNITED  STATES  DURING 
THE  FIVE  FISCAL  YEARS  NOTED  AT  HEAD  OF  COLUMNS. 
Oil  of 
1902. 
1901. 
1900. 
1899. 
1898. 
99-886 
75'640 
71-937 
66-H2 
31*019 
Per  pound  
1.67 
1.90 
1-53 
1.77 
1-59 
39i -485 '5 
268-34I 
261-978 
237-302 
160  264 
Per  pound  
.721 
.861 
.808 
•783 
•73 
4-203 
5  904 
3  156 
3-092 
721 
.781 
1.01 
•946 
1.03 
.67 
7762 
4-3I9 
2'250*2 
1-911 
1-535 
8-37 
9.71 
II.QI 
11.86 
12.06 
79-160-5 
72-218 
57-069 
52-378 
33732 
i* 
1.52 
I.67 
1.30 
1-34 
These  figures  illustrate  very  well  the  tremendous  increase  in  the 
use  of  the  essential  oils  of  this  particular  class.  The  average  price 
is  another  interesting  feature  of  this  table.  All  of  the  oils,  with  the 
single  exception  of  oil  of  orange  flowers,  have  practically  maintained 
their  price  during  the  whole  period.  The  gradual  decline  in  the 
price  of  the  oil  of  orange  flowers  is  largely  due  to  the  introduction 
of  synthetic  products  that  have  been  used  as  substitutes  for  the  nat- 
ural oil.  This  feature  will  be  referred  to  again  later  under  the  head 
of  oil  of  orange  flowers. 
Oil  of  Bergamot. — This  is  one  of  the  oils  that  could  well  be 
dropped  from  our  Pharmacopoeia  on  account  of  not  having  any  well- 
defined  therapeutic  uses.  The  physical  or  chemical  properties  are 
not  thoroughly  understood,  but  it  is  generally  conceded  that  the  oil 
obtained  from  fruit,  at  different  stages  of  ripening,  has  quite  a  differ- 
