The Press., 1895-11-21
THE RAPID STRIDES OF CHEM
 ,,~.r ISTRY

Chemistry is the basis of all the sci
 ences, and the rate at which it has been
 going ahead of late is astonishing. On a
 shelf in the patent office, at Washington,
 are number of bottles containing colognes
 and various scents. These were not made
 from flowers; but are laboratory com
 pounds, counterfeiting the perfumes of
 the rose and other kinds of blossoms so
 perfectly that nobody can tell the differ
 ence. Nearly all of them are entirely
 new. Altar of roses has not yet been
 produced artifcially, but it is in sight
 'Fhe chemists are approaching it from two
 directions. The ethereal oil that gives to
 the rose its peculiar fragrance is called
 "1hodonol." This oil is found in the
 common lemon grass, and also in some of
 the geraniuns. Efforts are being made
 to extract the oil from these plants, only
 single modification being required to transform it into the altar. At the same
 time the production of the altar is being attempted directly from the clements which nature employs in its composition.
 The production of artificial musk from coal tar is 8 wonderful triumph of syn thetic chemistry. It is likely to drive the real article out of the market before long,
 Though not at all the same thing as real musk, chemically speaking, it's scent is indistinguishable from that of the latter. Musk, of course, is an important article Of commerce, obtained from a gland of the musk deer that roams the pine forests of the Himalayas. The perfumes of all flowers are due to ethereal oils, and be- fore long all of these will be manufactur- ed artificially. Ethereal oils give to fruits their delicious 1avors. There are hun dreds of these oils, and very one of them can be counterfeited easily, inasmuch as they are very simple chemical compounds. It doesn't pay any longer to use real fruit syrups for soda water, inasmuch as all of them can be initiated to perfection with artificial ethers or by mixtures of ethers.
 The biggest commercial success in the way of an artificial fiavoring is vanalline This product is keeping down the price of vanilla beans, and it is likely to drive the latter out of the market. Already the chemists are manufacturing oil of banana, oil of pineapple, oil of pear, oil of apple, oil of raspberry, and many oth- CTS. The essential oil of banana, obtain ed by distilling the fruit, is identical with the laboratory product. OH of banana is a compound of aeetic acid ,aand amyE alcohol, the latter being the chief constituent of fusel oil. Oil of bitter almonds has been counterfeited though chemically different, it has the same flavor as the real. .-. ..,......-.....-
 The chemists now know how to coun- terfeit lactio aeId, which is. the sour prin- lesOf sour niIh They also mako cftsl rio acid, which is the sour of the lemon. A recent achievement of great importance Is the manufacture of salicylic acid from oarbol1c acid. One of the best remedies | Tor gout and rheumatism is saIicylic acid also 1t is very useful as preservative. | Formerly 1t was obtained from the win- | tergreen plant and from certain varieties of willows, and 1t was very costly. At present. it Is made by the ton, and is ex- 'remely cheap-too cheap, in fact, inas nneh 9 as it is freely employed to give a better keeping quality to bottled and oth- 9rwise preserved foods. It kills the bac ;eria that produce decomposition, but in he stomach 1t destroys the digestive fer nents, and on that account it is injurious o heaIth.-Fr0ma q letter Gn zHe NeaO- Or eG1as Tunes Democrat.