244 
Artificial  Oil  of  Winter  green. 
Am.  Jour.  Pbarm. 
May,  1895. 
On  p.  8  of  The  American  Journal  of  Pharmacy  for  1887,  Charles 
Bullock  published,  under  the  title  of  "  Synthetical  Oil  of  Gaultheria," 
the  following  process : 
Dissolve  the  salicylic  acid  in  the  alcohol  ;  then  add  gradually  the  sulphuric 
acid ;  warm  gently  during  twenty-four  hours  ;  then  distil  from  a  retort,  into 
which  a  current  of  steam  is  introduced.  The  distillate  is  to  be  well  washed 
and  separated  by  decantation. 
The  product  afforded  by  this  process  has,  when  recently  prepared,  a  rank 
odor,  but  it  is  said  in  the  article  cited  that  the  odor  "  improves  by  keeping." 
Although  the  writer  does  not  object  to  the  use  of  absolute  methyl 
alcohol,  he  is  of  the  opinion  that  it  adds  unnecessarily  to  the  cost 
of  the  oil,  because  such  an  article  is  obtainable  only  by  the  expen- 
diture of  much  work  and  time — items  of  significance  scarcely 
expected  to  be  compensated  by  any  probable  superiority  of  the 
product  over  that  obtained  when  a  methyl  alcohol  of  reasonable 
purity  is  employed. 
In  the  contribution  mentioned,  attention  is  directed  to  an  artifi- 
cial oil  then  recently  introduced  into  commerce.  It  is  described  as 
being  colorless,  as  having  a  specific  gravity  of  1-176  and  as  boiling 
at  398°  F.  (2030  C). 
The  specific  gravity  compares  favorably  with  I- 180,  the  figures 
required  by  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  1880  for  the  natural  oil  of  winter- 
green,  in  place  of  which  the  synthetical  oil  was  obviously  intended 
to  be  used.  And  the  boiling  point,  while  notably  lower  than  that 
of  pure  methyl  salicylate,  fulfilled  the  necessity  of  a  temperature 
above  2000  C,  required  at  that  time,  vide  National  Dispensatory, 
third  edition,  p.  1060.  The  cause  of  this  variance  in  the  boiling 
point  may  have  been  the  presence  of  the  methyl  ether  which  Mr. 
Bullock  suspected  in  the  sample. 
By  a  number  of  experiments  the  writer  has  been  enabled  to 
develop  the  hydrochloric  acid  method  already  described  as  the  one 
most  frequently  directed  for  the  preparation  of  the  artificial  oil, 
and  to  devise  the  following  practical  and  economical  process,  which 
yields  an  oil  of  good  qualities  : 
Salicylic  acid  505*470  grammes. 
Methyl  alcohol  690*850  grammes, 
Salicylic  acid  , 
Methyl  alcohol,  absolute 
Sulphuric  acid  .... 
Yz  oz. 
2  fl.  ozs 
I  fl.  oz. 
