2  Adulterations  of  Essential  Oils.      {A ^nJa0aurry f^m- 
They  are  generally  beyond  their  control,  as  will  be  seen  by  some  of 
the  subsequent  remarks. 
The  guileless  farmer  or  peasant  who  constructs  a  crude  still  and 
collects  oils  by  his  primitive  methods  (besides  the  impurities  to  be 
expected  from  this  source)  frequently  adds  a  goodly  proportion  of 
a  cheaper  oil  or  synthetic  sent  to  him  by  a  friend  in  the  wicked 
city.  Synthetic  oil  of  wintergreen  is  said  to  be  largely  used  in  this 
manner,  and  the  resulting  product  sold  for  true  oil  of  wintergreen. 
The  Turkish  peasant  in  like  manner  and  for  similar  reasons  adds 
geranium  oil  to  his  rose  leaves  before  he  begins  his  distillation  of 
pure  otto  of  rose.  Even  John  Chinaman,  forced  to  keep  "  open 
door, "  manages  to  return  the  "  Foreign  Devils"  coal  oil  by  con- 
scientiously "  plugging  "  some  of  the  essential  oils  which  he  sells, 
especially  oils  of  aniseed  and  cassia.  And  the  warm-blooded 
Sicilian,  in  response  to  an  increasing  demand  for  his  goods,  rejuven- 
ates a  worn-out  or  poor  quality  oil  by  adding  the  necessary  constit- 
uents taken  from  a  cheaper  source;  for  example,  oil  of  lemon  is- 
fortified  with  citral  obtained  from  oil  of  lemongrass,  and  oil  of  ber- 
gamot  is  "  pieced  out "  with  lemon  and  orange  oils. 
Then  some  of  the  primitive  distillers  themselves,  and  possibly 
some  of  the  middlemen  or  the  jobbers,  try  their  hands  at  improving 
nature.  This  is  practiced  in  some  instances  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  farther  the  oil  travels,  and  the  larger  the  number  of  hands  it 
passes  through,  the  more  it  adds  unto  itself,  until  finally,  in  some 
instances,  at  least,  it  is  not  recognized  by  its  friends.  Some  of  these 
adulterations  may  be  due  to  ignorance,  carelessness  or  accident,  but 
many,  very  many,  are  due  to  design,  and  unless  there  is  some  im- 
provement in  this  respect,  we  may  be  prepared  to  hear  in  the  near 
future  of  some  one  liberally  supplying  himself  with  synthetics, 
esters,  aldehydes,  alcohol,  oil  of  copaiba  and  plenty  of  French  tur- 
pentine, then  opening  up  an  office  with  the  sign  "  Essential  Oils 
Made  to  Order  While  You  Wait." 
Essential  oils  are  frequently  met  with  that  are  unnaturally  low  in 
their  characteristic  constituent,  so  much  so  that,  being  otherwise 
satisfactory,  only  one  conclusion  can  be  drawn,  viz.,  that  they  have 
been  robbed  or  looted;  for  example,  de-mentholized  peppermint 
oil ;  oil  of  cloves,  minus  a  large  part  of  its  eugenol ;  caraway,  de- 
prived of  some  of  its  carvone ;  and  oil  of  lemon,  abnormally  low  in 
its  citral.    We  shall  hereafter  for  brevity's  sake  call  this  class  of 
