46  Chaulmoogra  Oil  Derivatives.        { A January Pi92im" 
the  improvement  of  the  various  cases  is  the  injected  material.  As 
a  series  of  experiments  intended  to  develop  the  best  method  for 
leprosy  treatment  the  plan  followed  was  satisfactory,  but  it  is  not 
satisfactory  as  a  method  of  demonstrating  the  relative  efficiency  of 
different  fractions  of  the  oil. 
DISTILLED  ESTERS. 
As  already  indicated,  the  processes  which  resulted  in  the  frac- 
tions "A,"  "B,"  "C,"  and  "D"  are  of  such  a  character  as  to  make  it 
improbable  that  any  other  material  except  fatty  acids  would  survive 
them  and  be  distributed  in  all  four  of  these  fractions.  Still  further 
evidence  on  this  point  was  gained  by  a  different  system  of  fractiona- 
tion. In  this  case  the  mixed  fatty  acids  derived  from  the  saponifica- 
tion of  chaulmoogra  oil  were  converted  into  ethyl  esters  by  heating 
with  absolute  alcohol  in  the  presence  of  dry  hydrochloric  acid  gas, 
giving  a  mixture  of  the  ethyl  esters  of  all  the  acids  present  in  the 
crude  oil.  This  acid  mixture  was  distilled  in  vacuo  at  a  pressure  of 
30  to  34  mm.  The  distillate  was  cut  into  three  fractions  of  different 
boiling  ranges,  designated  "E,"  "F"  and  "G."  These  distilled 
esters  are  colorless  liquids.  At  the  time  the  first  work  of  this 
character  was  done  no  apparatus  was  available  to  provide  higher 
vacua  and  allow  satisfactory  distillations.  The  fractions  "E,"  "F" 
and  "G,"  were  used  for  intramuscular  injections  in  a  number  of 
patients,  beginning  in  January,  191 9,  and  in  some  cases  extending 
until  about  the  1st  of  July  of  that  year.  It  was  found  that  all  the 
cases  receiving  each  one  of  the  fractions  "E,"  "F"  and  "G"  showed 
improvement — some  of  them  quite  rapid — indicating  that  the 
methods  employed  in  their  production  had  not  resulted  in  the  de- 
struction of  the  therapeutic  agent  or  agents. 
The  same  uncertainty  surrounds  the  interpretation  of  these 
results  as  exists  in  the  cases  receiving  fractions  "A,"  "B,"  "C"  and 
"D"  since  all  were  getting  chaulmoogra  oil  in  capsules  three  times 
daily  in  addition  to  the  weekly  injections.  We  can  say,  however, 
that  whatever  virtue  resides  in  the  use  of  chaulmoogra  oil  deriva- 
tives injected  intramuscularly  in  combination  with  the  oral  ad- 
ministration, that  virtue  is  probably  not  lost  or  segregated  to  an 
appreciable  extent  by  any  of  the  chemical  or  physical  conditions  to 
which  these  various  preparations  have  been  exposed. 
