Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
November,  1915.  J 
Chaulmoogra  Oil. 
493 
THE  BOTANICAL  SOURCE,  PHYSICAL  CHARACTERS, 
AND  CHEMICAL  CONSTITUENTS  OF 
CHAULMOOGRA  OIL. 
By  Frederick  B.  Power. 
In  the  October  number  of  this  Journal  (pp.  473-483)  there 
appeared  a  paper  by  Mr.  Probodha  C.  Chattopadhyay,  of  Calcutta, 
India,  entitled :  "  The  Examination  of  Chaulmoogra  Oil."  The  paper 
referred  to  contains  so  many  obviously  incorrect  statements  and 
such  completely  unwarranted  inferences  or  conclusions  that,  in  view 
of  the  confusion  which  is  thus  likely  to  be  produced  in  the  literature 
of  the  subject,  it  has  been  considered  that  some  comment  upon  it 
should  not  be  withheld.  It  may  be  stated  at  the  outset  that  the 
task  of  reviewing  a  paper  of  this  character,  and  of  presenting  such 
criticisms  respecting  it  as  are  deemed  necessary,  is  not  an  inspiriting 
one,  for  it  was  reasonably  to  be  assumed  that  the  botanical  source, 
physical  characters,  and  chemical  composition  of  chaulmoogra  oil  had 
been  thoroughly  established  and  were  well  known  to  all  who  are 
conversant  with  recent  chemical  or  pharmaceutical  literature.  Inas- 
much as  the  present  author  and  his  colleagues  of  the  Wellcome 
Chemical  Research  Laboratories,  London,  had  devoted  several  years 
to  the  study  of  chaulmoogra  oil  and  several  more  or  less  closely 
related  products,  with  the  use  of  absolutely  authentic  material,  to- 
gether with  the  fact  that  the  results  of  these  researches  had  all 
been  published  in  the  Journal  of  the  Chemical  Society  1  of  London, 
and  widely  abstracted  in  other  periodicals,  no  further  justification 
would  appear  to  be  needed  for  the  remarks  which  are  here  presented. 
The  above-mentioned  series  of  investigations  have  indeed  been 
referred  to  by  Mr.Chattopadhyay  and  partially  cited  in  his  paper, 
and  the  respective  original  publications  were  doubtless  available 
to  him.  It  is,  therefore,  all  the  more  astonishing  that  he  should 
have  given  expression  to  such  completely  erroneous  views,  and  - es- 
pecially to  have  made  such  unfounded  and  illogical  statements  respect- 
ing the  composition  of  chaulmoogra  oil.  Although  a  detailed  con- 
sideration of  the  subject-matter  of  the  paper  referred  to  would  serve 
no  useful  purpose,  it  nevertheless  seems  important  that  notice  should 
1Joum.  Chem.  Soc,  1904,  85,  pp.  838-861;  1905,  87,  pp.  349-357,  884-900; 
190/,  9i,  PP.  557-57^.  1910,  97,  PP.  1285-1289. 
