Am- £°£i!&arm-}  Oil  of  Sandal  Wood.  255 
The  interesting  account  given  of  sandal  wood  in  'Pharmacographia' 
may  be  supplemented  here  by  some  particulars  given  by  Dr.  Bidie 
concerning  the  distillation  of  the  oil  in  India,  and  published  in  the  Phar- 
macopoeia of  India  (p.  46 1 )  from  which  the  following  quotation  is  taken : — 
"  It  (the  tree)  is  carefully  protected  by  Government,  and  only  the 
trees  that  have  reached  maturity,  which  they  do  in  from  eighteen  to 
twenty-five  years,  are  cut  down.  The  felling  takes  place  in  the  end 
of  the  year,  and  the  trees  are  then  stripped  of  their  bark  and  conveyed 
to  various  depots  where  they  are  cut  into  billets,  which  are  carefully 
dressed  and  sorted  according  to  the  quality  of  the  wood.  These  billets 
form  the  sandal  wood  of  commerce,  and  are  sold  by  weight  at  an 
annual  auction,  native  merchants  congregating  from  all  parts  of  India 
to  make  purchases.  The  pieces  that  are  straight  and  have  most  heart 
wood,  fetch  the  highest  price,  as  the  fragrance  for  which  they  are  so 
much  prized  depends  on  the  presence  of  an  essential  oil,  which  is 
chiefly  situated  in  the  dark  central  wood  of  the  tree.  The  Mysore 
Government  has  long  had  establishments  for  extracting  the  oil,  which 
is  sold  at  the  annual  auctions  along  with  the  wood  and  chiefly  bought 
up  for  exportation  to  China  and  Arabia.  It  is  procured  from  the 
wood  by  distillation,  the  roots  yielding  the  largest  quantity  and  the 
finest  quality  of  oil.  The  body  of  the  still  is  a  large  globular  clay 
pot,  with  a  circular  mouth,  and  is  about  2J  feet  deep  by  about  6  feet 
circumference  at  the  bilge.  No  capital  is  used,  but  the  mouth  of  the 
still,  when  used,  is  closed  with  a  clay  lid,  having  a  small  hole  in  its 
center,  through  which  a  bent  copper  tube  about  5J  feet  long  is  passed 
for  the  escape  of  the  vapor.  The  lower  end  of  the  tube  is  conveyed 
inside  a  copper  receiver,  placed  in  a  large  porous  vessel  containing 
cold  water.  When  preparing  the  sandal  for  distillation  the  white  or 
sap  wood  is  rejected,  and  the  heart  wood  is  cut  into  small  chips,  of 
which  about  2  maunds  or  50  lbs.  are  put  into  the  still.  As  much 
water  is  then  added  as  will  just  cover  the  chips,  and  distillation  is 
carried  on  slowly  for  ten  days  and  nights,  by  which  time  the  whole  of 
the  oil  is  extracted.  As  the  water  from  time  to  time  gets  low  in  the 
still,  fresh  supplies  are  added  from  the  heated  contents  of  the  refrig- 
erator. The  quantity  of  oil  yielded  by  wood  of  good  quality  is  at 
the  rate  of  10  ozs.  per  maund,  or  2*5  per  cent.  It  is  transparent  and 
of  a  pale  yellow  color,  and  has  a  resinous  taste  and  sweet  peculiar 
smell,  which  is  best  appreciated  by  rubbing  a  few  drops  of  the  oil  on 
the  warm  hand.    The  specific  gravity  is  about  0'980." 
