LAUEACE^E 125
springs which furnish an ample supply of water for coolers. The dis-
tillery with all its arrangements closely resembles the one which some
time ago was described and illustrated in one of the reports of Messrs.
Schimmel & Co.
" An iron pan is securely placed in a brick hearth with a large fire-
place ; upon this pan a large wooden cylinder lined with sheet iron is
placed, upon whose upper rim a large cover of strong sheet iron rests.
The space between the cylinder and the cover, around the rim, is made
tight by strips of moist cloth or rags. Around the lower side of the
cover there runs an outer groove for gathering and drawing off the
water serving for cooling, and a narrow interior groove for collecting
the distillate containing the essential oil. This distillate passes into
tin cans and the oil collects at the bottom.
" At each charge of the cylinder, about 1 picul of leaves and twigs
and 250 catties ( = 2-J piculs) of water are employed; the water used is
mostly from preceding distillates. The distillation lasts about two and
a half hours.
" The yield of one such charge, when consisting of leaves only, is
1£ to 2 taels, and when consisting of 70 per cent, of leaves and 30 per
cent, of twigs, 1\ to 3 taels of oil.
1
The oil obtained from leaves alone
is in general the superior one.
" With a still of this capacity, as much as 50 catties of oil are ob-
tained per month, or 3 to 5 piculs per year. The festivities connected
with the Chinese New Year cause an interruption of the distillation for
one or even two months. The quality, of the oil depends upon the
material used for distillation. Both too old and too young trees furnish
leaves less rich in oil; large leaves are better than small young ones ;
this explains the fact that the twigs and leaves gathered in spring and
in winter yield an inferior oil to those gathered in midsummer and in
autumn.
" The distiller who furnishes us this information claims to produce
but one grade of oil, using 70 per cent, of leaves and 30 per cent, of twigs.
A specimen, marked A, was taken by us from the apparatus. The tin
can contained but a small amount of oil resting under the water, and
the sample, collected in a rather primitive way, contained some water.
On standing, some drops of water separated at the top of the slightly
yel'ow oil. It was subsequently examined by Mr. JJ. Neidhardt in
Hong-Kong, with the following result:—
"Specimen A (1895). A turbid liquid which on standing separated
into two layers, the upper one water, the lower one cassia oil of a light
Bhine wine colour.
Consistency: very limpid.
Odour : the true oil of cassia, somewhat smoky.
Taste : the same.
Specific gravity: 1*059.
Residue of distillation: 3'75 per cent.; resinous, sticky.
Cinnamic aldehyde: 86 per cent.
Solubility in alcohol 80 per cent. : complete.
Solubility in solution of sodium salicyiate: complete.
Reaction with lead subacetate: no turbidity.
" The result of this investigation indicates that a rather large pro-
portion of twigs seems to be required to materially reduce the quality
1
16 taels = 1 catty = 605 grms.; 1 picul = 60 kilos 500 grms.