336  Lactic  Acid  Ester  of  Santalol,  etc.     J  ^'"•jfr'ioiu''"' 
when  examining  the  oils  obtained  from  wood  bought  on  the  London 
market.  In  recent  years,  a  pecuhar  malady  called  in  Mysore  spike 
disease  "  attacked  the  sandalwood ;  parasitic  roots  of  other  trees 
attaching  themselves  underground  to  the  sandalwood  roots  even  at 
from  one  to  one  hundred  feet  distance.  This  disease  at  one  time 
bid  fair  to  exterminate  these  valuable  trees,  but  the  Mysore  govern- 
ment, which  derives  an  important  revenue  from  this  source,  is  now 
engaged  in  heroic  efforts  to  save  them. 
My  time,  however,  being  limited  to  twenty  minutes,  I  refrain 
from  enlarging  on  this  subject  and  must  refer  those  who  are  inter- 
ested to  the  contributions  to  materia  medica  which  I  have  published 
from  time  to  time  in  the  Pharmaceutical  Journal  of  Great  Britain, 
and  more  recently  in  the  American  edition  of  the  Tribune  Medicale 
of  November,  1909. 
It  is  now  recognized  that  the  most  valuable  oil  is  obtained  from 
the  heart  wood  of  the  true  Santalnni  album  growing  on  the  higii- 
lands  of  Mysore  in  Southern  India,  and  it  is  with  this  product  that 
I  am  dealing  in  the  present  paper. 
In  confirmation  of  what  I  have  already  published  on  sandalwood 
oil  distilled  in  India,  I  will  quote  from  Schimmel's  Semi-annual 
Report  of  October,  1910,  since  it  confirms  much  that  I  have  already 
written  on  the  Sandalwood  of  Mysore,  although  reference  is  here 
made  to  an  outlying  territory :  The  distillation  of  sandalwood  oil 
appears  to  be  an  ancient  industry  in  Southern  Kanara,  especially  in 
the  district  of  Udipi,  but  it  is  steadily  declining.  Natives  from 
Udipi  attend  the  auctions  in  Mysore  and  Coorg  every  year,  and 
attract  attention  by  their  bids,  which  are  often  extravagantly  high, 
especially  for  Coorg  wood.  But  not  all  the  wood  bought  by  these 
dealers  is  distilled  by  them:  a  portion  of  it  they  resell  to  Bombay. 
It  is  said  that  the  distillers  also  use  smuggled  wood  (sandalwood 
being  a  monopoly  of  the  State  of  Mysore),  besides  which  sandal- 
wood trees  may  occur  here  and  there  in  the  district  of  Kanara. 
"  The  oil  industry  is  centred  principally  in  the  district  northeast 
of  Karkul  up  to  the  foot  of  the  Ghats. 
"  For  distilling  purposes,  the  wood  is  cut  into  chips  and  placed  in 
the  still.  Water  is  then  added  and  the  distillation  of  the  same 
charge  is  continued  uninterruptedly  day  and  night  for  a  whole 
month.  Fresh  supplies  of  water,  consisting  of  the  luke-warm  water 
taken  from  the  cooling  vessel,  are  poured  into  the  still  about  15 
times  every  24  hours.   The  oil-yield  is  said  to  be  as  follows : 
