Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
May,  1879. 
Distilled  Essence  of  Lemon. 
cially  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  vertical  granite  runners,  which 
came  into  actual  contact  with  the  peel,  have  a  crushing  surface  of  about 
twenty-four  square  feet,  and  the  granite  bed  on  which  they  run  has  a 
surface  of  thirteen  square  feet.  The  wetting  of  this  large  surface  by 
the  liquid  contents  of  the  peel  no  doubt  occasioned  a  loss  of  oil  of 
some  importance  when  referred  to  the  small  quantity  operated  upon. 
Working  on  large  quantities  the  absolute  loss  would  be  very  little  greater, 
and  the  relative  loss  would,  of  course,  be  very  much  smaller.  Giving 
these  facts  due  consideration,  I  think  that  the  second  lot  of  peel  was 
naturally  much  richer  in  oil  than  the  first. 
The  peel  was  taken  from  lemons  which  were  not  only  ripe,  but  old, 
being  of  the  season  1 877,  and  the  distillation  being  made  in  July,  1878  ; 
they  were,  therefore,  at  least  nine  months  old,  and  had  not  only  lost  oil 
in  ripening,  but  also  in  keeping. 
In  Pharmacographia  it  is  stated  that  by  the  sponge  process,  as  practiced 
in  Calabria  and  Sicily,  400  fruits  yield  from  nine  to  fourteen  ounces  of 
oil,  i.  600  fruits  yield  from  thirteen  and  a  half  to  twenty-one  ounces 
of  oil.  Taking  the  average  yield  of  this  number  of  fruits,  about 
seventeen  ounces,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  larger  product  obtained  as 
described  above  was  exactly  half  this  quantity.  This  being  so,  and 
remembering  the  age  and  condition  of  the  peel,  there  are  good  grounds 
for  believing  that  under  favorable  conditions  distillation  will  yield  as 
large  results  as  the  processes  now  employed;  indeed,  from  what  Prof. 
Redwood  states  respecting  essence  of  limes,  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  the  distillation  will  show  an  advantage  in  this  respect. 
Both  Pereira  and  the  authors  of  Pharmacographia  state  that  oil  of 
lemon  procured  by  distillation  is  of  inferior  fragrance.  It  is  highly 
probable  that  the  construction  of  the  still  may  account  for  some  por- 
tion of  the  difference  between  the  subject  of  their  remarks  and  the 
subject  of  this  short  paper.  In  conclusion,  I  may  state  that  the  still 
employed  in  these  experiments  was  expressly  constructed  for  the  distilla- 
tion of  medicated  waters. — Pharm.  'Journ.  and  Trans.,  March  29,  1879,, 
