* * * * *

COLORING MATTER OF VOLATILE OILS.

BY G.E.  SACHSSE.

It is well known that most ethereal oils are colorless; however, there are a great number colored, some of which are blue, some green, and some yellow.  Up to the present time the question has not been decided, whether it is the necessary property of ethereal oils to have a color, or whether their color is not due to the presence of some coloring matter which can be removed.  It is most probable that their color arises from the presence of a foreign substance, as the colored ethereal oils can at first, by careful distillation, be obtained colorless, whilst later the colored portion passes over.  Subsequent appearances lead to the solution of the question, and are certain evidence that ethereal oils, when they are colored, owe their color to peculiar substances which, by certain conditions, may be communicated from one oil to another.  When a mixture of oils of wormwood, lemons, and cloves is subjected to distillation, the previously green-colored oil of wormwood passes over, at the commencement, colorless, while, towards the end of the distillation, after the receiver has been frequently charged, the oil of cloves distils over in very dense drops of a dark green color.  It therefore appears that the green coloring matter of the oil of wormwood has been transferred to the oil of cloves.—­Zeitschrift fuer Pharmacie.

* * * * *

ARTIFICIAL PREPARATION OF OIL OF CINNAMON.

BY A. STRECKER.

Some years since, Strecker has shown that styrone, which is obtained when styracine is treated with potash, is the alcohol of cinnamic acid.  Wolff has converted this alcohol by oxidizing agents into cinnamic acid.  The author has now proved that under the same conditions by which ordinary alcohol affords aldehyde, styrone affords the aldehyde of cinnamic acid, that is, oil of cinnamon.  It is only necessary to moisten platinum black with styrone, and let it remain in the air some days, when by means of the bisulphite of potash the aldehyde double compound may be obtained in crystals, which should be washed in ether.  By the addition of diluted sulphuric acid, the aldehyde of cinnamic acid is afterwards procured pure.  These crystals also dissolve in nitric acid, and then form after a few moments crystals of the nitrate of the hyduret of cinnamyle.  The conversion of styrone into the hyduret of cinnamyle by the action of the platinum black is shown by the following equation: 

    C_{18}H_{10}O_{2} + 2 O = C_{18}H_{8}O_{2} + 2 HO.—­Comptes Rendus.

* * * * *

DETECTION OF SPIKE OIL AND TURPENTINE IN LAVENDER OIL

BY DR. J. GASTELL.

There are two kinds of lavender oil known in commerce; one, which is very dear, and is obtained from the flowers of the Lavandula vera; the other is much cheaper, and is prepared from the flowers of the Lavandula spica.  The latter is generally termed oil of spike.  In the south of France, whether the oil be distilled from the flowers of the Lavandula vera or Lavandula spica, it is named oil of lavender.