Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1879. 
Distilled  Essence  of  Lemon. 
255 
lure.  Quinamin  would  therefore  appear  not  to  participate  in  the 
sometimes  peculiar  action  of  the  mixed  alkaloids. 
I  believe  moreover  that  the  before  mentioned  action  of  the  mixed 
alkaloids  is  referable  to  the  individual  better-known  cinchona  alkaloids, 
inasmuch  as  every  person  is  not  similarly  affected  by  them.  Under 
these  conditions  it  would  be  the  business  of  the  physician  to  determine 
which  substance  should  be  given  in  a  particular  case. — Pharm.  Jour, 
Trans.,  April  12,  1879. 
DISTILLED  ESSENCE  OF  LEMON. 
By  John  Moss,  F.I.C.,  F.C.S.  Lond.  et  Ber. 
The  interest  attaching  to  this  body  at  the  present  time  was  excited 
by  a  paper  (read  before  the  Pharmaceutical  Society  on  the  5th  of  Feb- 
ruary, and  published  in  the  Society's  Journal  on  the  8th)  entitled,  "An 
Examination  of  Distilled  Essence  of  Lemon."    The  author,  my  friend 
Dr.  Tilden,  intimated  to  me  some  months  ago  his  desire  that  my  firm 
should  prepare  for  him  a  small  quantity,  not  less  than  eight  ounces,  of 
the  essence  from  the  peel  of  the  fresh  fruit.    The  essence  of  lemon 
of  commerce  being  notoriously  and  skillfully  adulterated,  he  wished  to 
operate  on  an  article  to  which  no  suspicion  of  admixture  could  possi- 
bly attach,  and  we  on  our  side  were  very  pleased  to  place  the  resources 
of  our  laboratory  at  his  service  to  further  the  important  researches  on 
the  composition  of  the  essential  oils,  which  he  has  been  prosecuting 
now  for  some  years.    Curiously  enough,  the  discussion  on  Dr.  Til- 
den's  paper  did  not  once  refer  to  the  more  important  scientific  aspect 
of  the  question  displayed  to  the  meeting,  the  principal  speakers  content- 
ing themselves  with  the  utterance  of  a  decorous  and  prolonged  excla- 
mation of  surprise  at  what  was,  after  all,  for  the  occasion,  of  very  sec- 
ondary importance,  namely,  the  author's  statement  that  the  distilled 
essence  prepared  for  him  "had  a  most  deliciously  fragrant  odor  of  the 
peel,  superior,  in  my  opinion,  to  the  foreign  essence."    At  the  March 
meeting  of  the  Society,  I  placed  on  the  table  a  small  specimen  of  the 
distilled  oil,  which  had  been  reserved  from  the  quantity  prepared  for 
Dr.  Tilden,  and  also  for  purposes  of  comparison,  some  of  the  finest 
imported  oil.    Connoisseurs  differed  as  to  the  respective  merits  of  the 
two  essences;  but  the  majority  of  them  agreed' with  Dr.  Tilden's  esti- 
mate of  the  distilled  oil.    Tested  by  smelling  at  the  neck  of  the  bottle, 
