The common method and the one now almost exclusively adopted of adulterating it, with geranium essence, may be known { 48} to you, and that it really is the most in use, you may conclude, from the price of the genuine article having been for a long time much higher at the places of production, than the price of that which is sold as prime in Europe. This fact has only lately been noticed in Europe, therefore in the price current of Trieste, for instance, you will find the genuine article noted, beside the prime article, with a considerable difference of price. What at London is designated as prime quality, is only a mixture of 60 to 70 per cent. essence of rose, with 30 to 40 per cent. essence of geranium. Samples will also prove this to you, more clearly. The price of the genuine attar is, to-day, 22 3/4c. for an ounce, at 10 drachms, according to which the English price current may be understood; in six or eight weeks after the preparation of the new crop, we hope to buy cheaper, but at what rate we cannot yet judge, as this depends on the produce of the crop. There is some cheaper and adulterated, and which is only bought by ignorant persons. This oil comes by caravans from the interior of Asia, and in spite of all our inquiries, we could not succeed in getting any sure information, about the plant which produces it, or the method of preparation.
Hitherto, attention has been mainly directed to the manufacture of chloroform, and the study of its anesthetic properties. Many chemists, however, have casually noticed the power it possesses of dissolving essential oils, fixed fatty matters, camphor resins, (even those which dissolve with difficulty in alcohol and ether, such as copal resin, for example,) iodine, bromine, vegetable alkalies, india rubber insoluble in alcohol, and but slightly soluble in ether, and, finally, gutta percha, insoluble according to M. Vogel, in both these menstrua. { 49}
Having lately had occasion to experiment with chloroform, upon a variety of substances, I have thought it might be useful, with a view to its further application, to make known the results obtained.
1. Resinous substances, gum mastic, colophony, elemi, balsam of tolu, benzoin, are very soluble cold, in all proportions of chloroform and their solutions in this liquid form varnishes, some of which might, I think, be usefully applied, when the price of chloroform shall be diminished.