Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
July,  1875.  ; 
Vanilla, 
at  a  temperature  of  about  100°  F.,  but  on  cooling  it  resolidifies.  Of 
this  you  have  a  fair  example  in  what  I  now  show  in  the  test-tube. 
Both  the  samples  seem  to  me  quite  free  from  any  adulteration  what- 
ever, and  specially  so  from  the  turpentine  smell,  which  many  of  the 
foreign  oils  of  peppermint  have.  The  solution  of  the  solid  oil,  though 
pungent  to  the  palate,  is  disagreeable  and  wanting  in  the  aroma  and 
flavor  which  all  fine  peppermint  oil  possesses  in  such  a  remarkable 
degree. 
If  moderate  in  price  and  supplied  in  sufficient  quantities,  I  think  it 
very  likely  that  the  liquid  Japanese  oil  may  come  into  demand  for  con- 
fectionery and  other  purposes,  as  the  samples  of  liquid  oil  now  sub- 
mitted give  fair  promise  of  the  Japanese  becoming  a  competitor  with 
any  other  English  or  American  oil  at  present  to  be  found  in  the  mar- 
ket.— Pharm.  Journ.  and  Trans.  \_Lond.'].,  April  17,  1875. 
VANILLA. 
BY  JOHN   R.  JACKSON, 
Curator  of  the  Museums,  Royal  Gardens,  Kew. 
Vanilla,  now  seldom,  if  ever,  used  in  medicine,  has  an  amount  of 
interest  attached  to  it  owing  to  its  natural  affinities,  early  history,  com- 
mercial value  and  uses,  that  may  render  some  notes  on  the  subject 
worth  recording. 
There  has  lately  been  issued  from  the  French  press  a  pamphlet  of 
some  fifty  odd  pages,  devoted  entirely  to  the  consideration  of  the 
vanilla  plant  in  all  its  bearings.  Considering,  however,  that  the  author 
is  a  member  of  the  Chamber  of  Agriculture  of  Reunion,  a  good  deal 
of  the  book  is  devoted  to  vanilla  as  a  product  of  that  island.  Never- 
theless, it  is  a  valuable  addition  to  the  literature  of  the  subject.  Its 
title  is  "  Etude  sur  la  Vanille  "  par  A.  Delteil. 
How  many,  and  what  are  the  exact  species  of  vanilla  which  furnish 
the  commercial  article,  has  always  been  a  question  amongst  authors 
ever  since  that  genus  itself  has  been  known.  It  will  be  well,  however, 
to  trace  the  history  of  vanilla  and  then  to  point  out  the  opinions  of 
more  recent  writers.  The  plant  being,  as  is  well  known,  a  member  of 
the  Orchidacea^  was  pretty  fairly  described  by  the  old  writers.  Thus 
Pomet  says,  in  his  "  Compleat  History  of  Druggs,"  that  the  pods  or 
cods  of  about  half  a  foot  long,  of  the  thickness  of  a  child's  little  fin- 
ger, hung,  upon  a  plant  of  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  high,  that  climbs  like 
