PHARMACY OF VANILLA.

THE NEW DIASTASE.

ITS

College.

DISTRIBUTION IN NATURE AND CULTIVATION.

Its Substitutes.

The meeting of the College of Pharmacy of the city of New York, which was held in the lecture hall of the college on Tuesday evening, January 18th, was devoted to the consideration of four papers, each of which dealt with vanilla from a different point of view. A large number of the alumni and students were present and listened with marked interest to the several speakers.

Professor Rusby introduced the discussion, giving the following general account of the distribution and habits of vanilla plants and the cultivation and curing of vanilla.

THE CULTURE OF THE PLANT. BY PROF. H. H. RUSBY. The genus vanilla was established by Plumier in 1752 in Miller's Gardener's At the present Dictionary, edition VI.

one.

time thirty-three species of vanilla are recognized by the "Index Kewensis." The New World contributes eighteen species, three from Mexico, five from the West Indies, two from Guiana, three from Brazil, three from Peru and one each from New Granada and Ecuador. A plant which Dr. Rusby collected in Bolivia may belong to one of the Peruvian species, or it may constitute an additional Its fruit was collected and traded in by the natives, the price being equal to about 35 cents, United States currency, for each fruit. Dr. Rusby also collected the plant in a wild state in Venezuela, but could obtain no information as to the utilization of its fruit. In the Old World fifteen species are known, four from tropical Africa, three from the East Indies, two from Java and one each from Ceylon, Sumatra, Bourbon, the Seychelles, the Philippines and the Malay Peninsula.

Source of Commercial Vanilla.

It is not known exactly how many of the species yield fruits capable of being used as vanillas, though a number of them are known to do so.

Neither are

(Continued on page 38.)

Druggists.

Jokichi Takamine.

Dr. Jokichi Takamine, whose portrait is presented herewith, is one of forty Japanese who were sent to this country by the Emperor of Japan some years ago in the interests of higher education. While studying with Professor Mills, F. R. S., at Glasgow University, he was impressed with the tedious, clumsy and primitive methods of brewing and distilling in their relation to the production of diastase as a fermenting agent. On returning to Japan, Dr. Takamine, jointly with Professor Atkinson, of Tokio University, undertook a series of studies and of microscopic experiments on many kinds

fungi with the view of finding a class of plant containing the two qualities of converting starch in cereals into sugars, and the sugar so obtained into alcohol. He eventually discovered what he required in the fungus of the species Eurotium oryzae, a mycelial of the Aspergillus family whose nature and characteristics were almost unknown. Dr. Takamine was sent to this country in 1893 as the representative of his government in charge of the Japanese exhibit at the World's Fair. He is now attached to the scientific staff of Parke, Davis & Co., New York and Detroit.

the regular order of business and introduced the lecturer.

Dr. Takamine prefaced his remarks with an interesting account of the antiquity of diastase. The importance of the subject of starch digestion was indicated (Continued on page 37.)

GINGER CULTURE AND THE LAND OF ITS ORIGIN.

Notes of a Trip to Jamaica.

METHODS OF GROWING THE PLANT.

Paper by F. B. Kilmer.

The regular pharmaceutical meeting of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy was held Tuesday, January 18th, with Dr. C. B. Lowe in the chair.

The following donations for museums were received: Samples of powdered extract of malt from John Wyeth & Bro., Philadelphia; handsome specimens of kola nuts, preserved in a 90 per cent glycerin menstruum, and also some fine Stearns & Co., Detroit, and samples of specimens of cascara bark from Frederick antimony regulus and antimony needle ore from McIlvaine Bros., Philadelphia.

The librarian announced as a matter of interest to those present that 150 volumes, most of them very valuable works, had been procured from the library of the late Prof. Bastin.

tern views, and so graphic were speaker's descriptions that one could almost imagine himself a visitor in Ginger Land.

The ginger plant grows at elevations of from 2,000 feet to the summits of the Blue Mountain range. Two essential requirements for the growth of the plant are sunshine and moisture, and these are had in abundance. While ginger grows at suitable elevations all over the island, the speaker said that it is mainly produced in the central western portion, where the conditions of the soil are more favorable.

The Government reports give the area under cultivation for this product as about 250 acres, but this Mr. Kilmer regarded as too low an estimate, considering the amount of ginger harvested. He said that many cultivators plant beds varying from six feet square to the size of a building lot, but that large plots are very

rare. For the most part, it is planted alongside other plants, such as pineapples, yams, cocoa, etc., and often in the midst of bushes and weeds. The cultivators divide ginger into two varieties; namely, "blue" and "yellow," according to the color of the rhizome. The blue appears to be a degenerate species, and the rhizome is hard and fibrous and less valuable as an article on commerce than the yellow variety. Another division is that of "plant" and "ratoon" ginger. from ginger is that Plant grown rhizomes put into the ground each season, while ratoon ginger is that produced from roots allowed to remain in the ground at harvest time. Each succeeding crop of ratoon ginger decreases in amount and loses in flavor.

Ginger is planted in March and April, and the process is somewhat similar to

our method of planting potatoes. The plant sometimes attains a height of five feet. When the stalk withers harvest time has arrived, the "ginger season" lasting from December or January until March. Ratoon ginger is, on the other hand, gathered from March to December.

It is important to dry the ginger soon after digging, else it becomes dark in color or moulds. The custom is to throw it into a basin of water, after which the hands, as the rhizomes are called, are peeled. The peeled ginger is immediately put into water and washed. This process whitens it, and it is now ready for drying, direct exposure to the rays of the sun being the best method yet tried for the purpose. It takes from 6 to 8 days to dry the ginger, and the loss in weight is about 70 per cent.

The average yield of dried ginger is estimated at from 1,000 to 1,500 pounds per acre. The total export of the article for 1896 was 1,960,609 pounds.

The most serious question involved in the cultivation of ginger is the impoverishment of soil which follows. Virgin soil appears best adapted for its growth, and to obtain this large areas of fine timber are cut down each year, only to be abandoned the next.

Improvement in this respect may be expected to take place, for the Jamaica Agricultural Society are conducting experiments to demonstrate the value of fertilizers in reclaiming land exhausted by the growth of the ginger and coffee plant.

The whole time of the meeting was taken up with this subject, and a hearty

vote of thanks was tendered Mr. Kilmer for presenting it.

The New Diastase,

(Concluded from page 26)

in the statement that we are continually manufacturing diastase in the system for softening and dissolving starchy food. According to the speaker, the physiology of digestion is not very well understood, even at the present day, the function of salivary digestion being given only small space in the text books. One reason advanced by Dr. Takamine for the indifference shown by investigators to the science of digestion was that we had never had a sufficiently strong diastase to permit of proper experimentation. While the diastase of the saliva has been known for a long time, artificial diastase has a lesser history. He described in a very graphic way by means of blackboard sketches the development of the germ or sprout of grain. The germ produces its own diastase, which acts upon the starch cells of the grain, converting them into soluble forms, such as dextrose and maltose, which are drawn upon by the germ or sprout for nutriment. Malt diastase is obtained by removing the germ or sprout after it shoots above the grain and drying it. The practical application of the action of diastase on starch was recognized long before diastase was used in the cure of amylaceous dyspepsia. Its first use was in the manufacture of alcoholic drinks. The starch-converting ferment of the saliva is used for this purpose by some African tribes, who, when they wish to give a special feast, invite tribesmen from all parts to present themselves at the kraal a week in advance. A large bowl of starch paste is set out in the centre of a clearing and the natives are invited as they arrive to come forward and contribute their quota of saliva to the bowl. At

the end of a week the starch has been successively transformed into sugar and alcohol by the action of the diastase of the saliva and the contents of the bowl are then drunk.

Не

in behalf of the Society any slight amend. ments that might be suggested by the New York College of Pharmacy in the Conference Committee's draft of a new pharmacy law, which was granted. then announced that the first examination by the Board of Pharmacy of Greater New York would take place on Monday, January 17, in the Brooklyn College of Examinations Pharmacy, at 8.30 a. m. will be conducted alternately, once a month, in the Boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, on the third Monday of each month, the odd months in Brooklyn and the even months in Manhattan, July and August excepted. The time for registration has been extended to May 1. Mr. Muir parried a query by Professor De Forest regarding the authority of the Board to limit the date of registration, with the statement, "I am not debating that question."

Coming to the discovery of taka-diastase, the lecturer spoke of the culture in Japan of a microscopic plant called Moyashi. This is a parasitic growth or fungus analagous to the ergot of rye, which, however, grows on rice, and is known to botanists as Eurotium oryzae. This plant exceeds in diastasic power any other The plant plant. can hardly be seen with the naked eye, and the problem was to grow enough of it to procure a sufficient supply of the diastasic substance. He tried the plan of planting them closer together. The bran of wheat was found to afford the best culture medium, and Dr. Takamine sows the spores of the ferment plant on ordinary wheat bran which has been thoroughly sterilized by steam. After standing about 50 hours that the spores have grown prodigiously. in a warm, moist place, it will be found The bran mixture is then mixed with water, and placed in a centrifugal machine, in which the bulky portion of the wheat bran is separated from that portion containing the taka-diastase. The subcalled taka-koji. The watery solution of stance separated from the wheat bran is taka-koji is then treated with absolute alcohol, which precipitates the taka-dia tase, This taka-diastase, the lecturer stated, was, which is afterwards separated and dried. for all practical purposes, natural diastase. Dr. Takamine demonstrated the starch converting power of taka-diastase by New York Amends the Pharmacy adding a pinch of the substance to a large beaker full of gelatinized starch. The diastase was incorporated with the upper half of the starch jelly by stirring with a glass rod. The stiff jelly began to liquefy immediately upon contact with the ferment, and after vigorous shaking the

beaker was inverted to show the extent of

liquefaction. The entire upper half of the into a watery liquid, consisting presumcontents of the beaker had been converted ably of dextrose and maltose, while the lower half which had not been impregnated with the taka-diastase remained firm and solid. Taka-diastase starch solution does not respond to the same chemical test as malt diastase. Thus, when to a solution of the latter is added tincture of guaiacum, followed by hydrogen dioxide, a blue color is developed. No color appears when taka-diastase is similarly treated. The diastasic power of taka-diastase is said to be twenty times as strong as the strongest malt diastase, and in experiments outside the human body, as much as 1,000 parts of starch have been converted by one part of taka-diastase. An important characteristic of taka-diastase was its action on egg albumen. Unlike other substances having the power of digesting starch, it acts on albumen, being able to digest 100 times its own weight.

Dr. Takamine used no notes, and spoke entirely from memory. His remarks were listened to with the closest attention, and his experiments were watched with interest. Many of the members duplicated the experiments with material and apparatus handed around for this purpose. At the close he was tendered a hearty vote of thanks, the motion being made by Dr. A. H. Brundage, in a lengthy complimentary speech.

The routine business of the meeting was taken up after Dr. Takamine resumed his seat. Wm. Muir asked power to endorse

At the meeting of the Society of Chemical Industry, held in the New York College of Pharmacy, on Friday evening, January 21st, Dr. Takamine repeated the above experiments, but went more into the technicalities of the chemistry of diastasic bodies. He had to face a much more critical audience than he met at the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy. Professor Chandler, the chairman of the society, interrogated him very closely, and at considerable length. The discussion occupied nearly as much time as did the address itself.

Law.

The report of the Conference Committee was presented to the members of the New York College of Pharmacy at an adjourned meeting, held at the College on January 11. Before the special business of the meeting was taken up, the College adopted a resolution presented by T. J. Macmahan, endorsing the movement started by the American Pharmaceutical Association for increased rank and pay for naval apothecaries. A letter will be sent to Secretary Long urging suitable legislation.

Copies of the proposed new pharmacy law were in the hands of all the members present, and Mr. Goldman moved the adoption of the law, as soon as action had been taken on Mr. Macmahan's motion. The members of the Conference Committee were anxious for the immediate adoption of their report without discussion, and intimated as much, considerably to the amusement of the worthy Mr. Macmahan and others, who are familiar with the deliberative methods of the College of Pharmacy. H. A. Herold, of the Alumni Association, suggested several amendments. Graduates of the New York and Brooklyn Colleges of Pharmacy should be entitled to registration without examination, he thought, and he asked for the insertion of a clause providing for this. His motion was put to a vote and was rejected by a majority of one.

Dr. Diekman waxed wroth over the unfair treatment accorded New York by the pharmacy Boards of other States in the matter of interchange of registration certificates. "It is a notorious fact," said he, "that New York has been the dumping ground for the pharmacists of the whole country, who come here after graduation to obtain recognition." Pennsylvania was instanced as a notable offender. Although

the law required the New York Board to register graduates of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy without examination the Pennsylvania Board refuses to so register applicants from New York.

A number of minor amendments were made and accepted by the committee. The poison schedule was the subject of well-merited criticism. It is perhaps the weakest feature of the law. It was shown that the word "opium" is repeated twice in one schedule. A distinction is made between "antitoxin" and "animal serums.' The nomenclature is not that of the present Pharmacopoeia, but is twenty years old. The Conference Committee admitted that the schedules' were faulty and incomplete and promised to revise them before presenting the bill at Albany. The meeting was then adjourned.

Clarence O. Bigelow, president of the Board of Pharmacy, wrote to the Board of Police Commissioners asking the police to assist in enforcing the laws regulating the practice of pharmacy and the sale of poisons. Mr. Bigelow stated that the Board of Pharmacy was anxious to learn whether many of the clerks employed in drug stores were competent, and wished the police to distribute circulars for drug clerks and proprietors to fill out with such information as will enable the Board of Pharmacy to determine their qualifications. The Board directed the Chief to confer with Mr. Bigelow and render whatever assistance is necessary.

Pharmacy of Vanilla.

(Concluded from page 36.) Although most of the vanilla of commerce is the product of cultivated plants, the fruits collected from wild plants are also marketed upon an extensive scale, European hot-houses have produced good fruits, though not for commercial purposes. The fruit is chiefly cultivated in Mexico and Bourbon, and to a greater or less extent in the West Indies, Java, Mauritius, Ceylon, the Fijis and the Straits Settlements.

Habits of the Plant.

In a wild state the plant inhabits the richest forest lands, always away from sea-breezes, the crevices of rocky hillsides being a favorite location. It is of terrestrial growth, climbing the neighboring trees, to which it attaches itself by means of numerous fixation roots. It climbs to a height of several yards, and then stretches out horizontally upon such supports as it may encounter, the growth of these horizontal branches being the flowering and fruit-producing portions. The stem is thick and succulent. If its connection with the earth be severed it - usually lives until it has been enabled to drop down aerial roots, which affix themselves in the soil and establish a new means of support. In a state of nature only about one in forty of the flowers produced will be fertilized and produce fruit. Pollination is entirely dependent on the visits of insects, as a perfect barrier is interposed between the pollen and stigma of the same flower. The methods of cultivation employed are deduced from a study of these natural conditions. Propagation is entirely by cuttings. The danger of serious impairment of the vital powers of the vanilla plant, as a result of this continuous method of propagation, was suggested. Great care is employed in the selection of such supporting trees as shall afford just the right admixture

of light and shade. Three years after the cuttings are planted their first crop is yielded, and three years later they are bearing at their full capacity, which is maintained for several years more. They will continue to yield more or less fruit for a period of thirty, forty or even fifty years.

Artificial Pollination.

The most important process connected with cultivation is that of artificial pollination. In some countries, as Reunion, where there is a total lack of the necessary insects, this method constitutes the sole dependence. In those countries where the insects do abound, the yield is increased from eight to sixteen fold by this means. The flowers are large, of a greenish-white or cream color and pleasantly fragrant and occur in auxiliary racemes of ten to fifteen each. Most cultivators pollinate two or three flowers of the cluster; others pollinate five or six. Pollination consists in holding the flower with the thumb and finger of the left hand, and, with a splinter of wood or bamboo held in the right hand, raising up the labellum between the pollen and stigma, then with the forefinger of the left hand pressing the former down upon the latter.

How the Beans Are Cured.

The beans vary from five to ten inches in length and from one to three-fourths inch in diameter, are bluntly triangular, yellowish-green when matured and weigh on the average, in the fresh condition, one pound for each twenty-five to thirty-five. After curing, they are often reduced by nearly three-fourths in diameter and about one-half in weight. If left upon the plant they will turn brown and eventually split into three parts, exuding a thick fragrant juice. If left too long upon the plant this splitting process will occur in curing. They should be gathered just as they begin to turn yellow. They are then placed between woolen blankets in a sweating-box and left for thirty-six hours, being afterward exposed to the noonday sun, just long enough to dry off the perspiration which is thus produced. Too

little drying exposes

them to subsequent moulding, while a slight excess greatly decreases the weight of the finished product. This sweating and drying is succeeded alternately by others, until they have become of a uniform blackish chocolate color and until the experience of the curers determines them to be fit for packing.

The work of cultivation and that of curing are performed by different operators, the latter operation being very difficult and precarious, calling for a high degree of experience and skill and being in the profits. Various modifications of the hands of a few persons who make large process as thus practiced in Mexico are employed in other producing districts. These were severally referred to by the speaker, and the opinion expressed that there was still room for improvement in this line. Well-matured plants, if properly cured, will assume a beautiful silverywhite crystallized incrustation, which is now seldom seen in the Mexican beans, a fact which has been stated to be due to the gathering of the fruits previous to maturity, in order to prevent them from being stolen. Vanilla packers are subject to poisoning resulting from handling the beans, the symptoms being much like those resulting from our poison ivy. They also suffer from cramps in the mus

cles of the finger and hand, due to the peculiar strain brought to bear upon them in holding a bundle which is being packed.

This portion of the discussion was illustrated by dried specimens of vanilla plants and by colored lantern slides, showing the different stages of curing, the structure of the flowers and the methods of artificial pollination and by fresh vanilla fruits. Dr. Jelliffe, the next speaker, presented the folowing data:

STRUCTURE OF VANILLA FRUIT.

BY PROF. SMITH ELY JELLIFFE.

In general it may be said that the different varieties of the vanilla fruit have an analogous structure. The form we have here is about 25 Cm. long, about 10 Cm. wide and 6 Cm. thick. The color is a rich dark-brown, and it has an oily to resinous feel. It is longitudinally wrinkled and covered with a whitish crystalline deposit of vanillin.

A transverse section shows that the fruit is elliptical, and the moderately thick walls enclose an irregular triangular cavity, into which several rib-like processes extend. These are the placentae and support the fine black seeds, which are very numerous. Each placenta is two-ranked. The interior of the cavity of the ovary is filled with minute papillae, to be mentioned later under microscopical consid

erations.

row.

The external surface of the fruit is the epicarp, which is composed of thickwalled regular cells disposed in a single Beneath this the tissues are very thin-walled and lax, containing considerable amounts of an oily substance with the characteristic odor of vanillin and also containing a large number of fine acicular crystals of calcium exalate. These are in general larger than the crystals found on the exterior of the fruit. The polygonal cells of the mesocarp are finely pitted in the main, but a number of them, especially near the periphery, are irregularly marked.

In the mesophyll are the fibre vascular bundles. These are irregularly scattered, the external ones being somewhat radially disposed, while those further in are not infrequently of a tangentially concentric type. In the centre of the bundle the fibres and sieve-tubes are found. These are surrounded by a number of ducts, which are usually spiral in type and somewhat interspersed with annular ducts. Irregular resinous masses and prisms of vanillin may be found in the tissues of the mesophylli.

The innermost layer of the mesocarp is made of smooth, slightly flattened cells, which bear a single row of unicellular papillose hairs, which project into the central cavity. These hairs have the interesting function of secreting the oily and resinous substance which elaborate the vanillin.

A few words upon the microscopical identification of false crystalline structures on the outside of the fruit. Unscrupulous dealers often use benzoic acid to make a false appearance of vanillin. It cle by the fact that its crystals are flatis to be distinguished from the real artitened and rhomboidal, whereas the crystals of vanillin are usually acicular and stand out, as a rule, at right angles to the surface of the fruit.

The Mould upon the Fruit. A beautiful specimen of the fruit was given to me by Mr. Henning, which

showed a marked development of mould on the inside. Fragments of this mouldy fruit were planted upon gelatin and nutrient agar-agar with the following results. The principal mould was "Aspergillus repens," another form was the "Mucor circinelloides." The first of these moulds is extremely common over the civilized world. The second is a form that has been found by me in the air of this city, but it is extremely rare. In Europe it is reported much more frequently. The characters of these moulds can be seen on consulting the Journal of Pharmacology for November, 1897. A number of bacteria were also obtained, but these were in all probability from the air and not deserving of special mention.

Professor Jelliffe's remarks were illustrated by a series of microscopical exhibits and by cultures of the moulds referred to.

a

THE CHEMISTRY OF VANILLIN. BY PROF. VIRGIL COBLENTZ. Professor Coblentz followed with very full resume of the chemistry of vanillin and of the complicated processes connected with its manufacture at different times and by different makers. In the abstract here presented it is not practicable to furnish the numerous series of chemical formulas given by the speaker.

Professor Coblentz said that the odorous properties of the vanilla bean reside in the crystalline principle vanillin and in a minute quantity of a balsam-like substance which is found in the seed. As is well known, the odorous principles are not well developed until during the curing process. It is then evident that there pre-exists in this fruit a complex organic sweating process, the exact nature of which changes has never been studied. The relations of the different compounds concerned in the production of vanillin may be indicated as follows:

CH COOH Benzene Carboxylic Acid. он (1)

6

4

C. H1COOH (2) Oxybenzoic-Ortho or Oxy 1-carboxy 2-benzene.

Preparation.

I. A. Oxidation of aliphatic side chains in Coniferin (Glucovanillin, Olivin-acethomovanillic acid, Acetoferulic acid), yielding an aldehyde group, while the hydroxyl and methoxy groups are already in their proper positions.

B. From Eugenol, Iso-eugenol (Eugenol-acetic acid, Acetiso-eugenol, Benzyl iso-eugenol, Methylene Iso-eugenol, Phenyl-avetic acid and Isoeugenol-toluic acid), by oxidation.

Peroxide of hydrogen and sodium peroxide have been employed as oxidizing chains in late patents. In another patent electric oxidation has been referred to.

Usually derivatives of, and not eugenol itself, are employed. This is done to protect the phenol group in these compounds from oxidation. Such compounds in which the hydrogen of the free hydroxyl group is replaced by a substituting group which is readily removed by oxidation, if preferred. For example Acetyl-eugenol. O-CH, CH (4)

C. Hg}O-CH,

(3) CH, CH=CH, (1) Acetyl-eugenol.

(O-CH, -CO

C, H, O-CH, (Saponified,)

сон

Acetyl Vanillin.

CH (4)

Ce H3 OCH, (3)

COH (1) Vanillin.

In place of the acetyl derivatives others have been employed, as for example, by the action of methylene chloride on eugenol-sodium, methylene, bi-eugenol results, which on oxidation yields methy lene-bi-vanillin. This when converted into a hexa-chloride, derivative and treat ed with hydrobromic acid, yields vanillin Another method consists in introducing a benzyl rest into the hydroxyl group of eugenol, then by heating with potassium hydrate, the Iso compound results, which on oxidation yields benzyl-vanillin. This ester, when heated with hydro-chloric, yields vanillin under saponification. Another method closely related to the above is a modification in which the benzyl rest is replaced by phenyl-chloro-acetic acid or chloro-toluic acid, these differing from benzyl-chloride in that they contain an additional CO2 group.

Starting

II. Thus far the various processes depend upon the oxidation of the alphatic side chain group in the mother substance to yield an aldehyde group, while the -OH and OCH 3 groups were already in their position in the original substance. In this group toluic acid is selected as the mother substance or cinnamic acid or benzaldehyde are employed. with toluol, it is successively converted into m-chloro-toluol, nitro-chloro,toluol, nitro-chlorotolyl-bromide and finally into nitro-chloro-benzaldehyde. This latter compound is by action of a methylic-alcoholic solution of caustic alkali converted into p-nitro-m-methoxy-benzaldehyde, which through reduction of the nitro group diazotating and boiling, the resulting amido compound yields vanillin.

In the above processes the aldehyde group is introduced by oxidation other means into benzene nucleus.

or

B. By conversion into the guaiacol-carboxylic acid, the introduction of the aldehyde group and separation of CO 2. Guiacol-carboxylic acid is treated with chloroform and alcoholic potassa, yielding vanillic acid, from which the vanillin may be obtained upon removing the CO2 group by heating.

C. A modification of this consists in convert

ing guaiacol-sodium by action of carbonic acid at 130 deg. C. into guaiacol-di-carboxilic acid, which, upon treatment with chloroform and alcoholic potassa, yields vanillic acid, in which the para carboxyl group is replaced by a methylal radical. The conversion of vanillic acid into vanillin then proceeds as given above.

Professor Coblentz exhibited beautiful

specimens of vanillin, including one of the very large amber-colored crystals which have recently appeared in the market.

THE COMMERCE IN VANILLA.

BY ADOLPH HENNING, PH. G. The most interesting exhibit of the evening was then made my Mr. Adolph Henning in connection with the discussion of the commerce of vanilla beans and vanillin This exhibit consisted of some 15 very handsome specimens of vanilla beans, representing every variety found in the New York market. Mr. Henning's contribution is represented below in abstract:

Mr. Henning stated that the United States not only consumes more vanilia than all the remainder of the world together, but it consumes the best kind.

He then compared the different kinds of commercial varieties of vanilla, giving brief descriptions of each.

He mentioned the Mexican bean and bon, or Reunion; Mauritius, which closethe following other varieties, the Bourly resembles the Bourbon; the Seychelles,

which is much inferior to either of these can," which come from Gaudaloupe and already mentioned; the "South Ameriwhich resembles the Mexican very closely in appearance, though much inferior in odor; the "Vanillon," another Gaudaloupe variety with an odor of heliotrope surpassing even that of Tahiti vanilla, and which is used principally in the manufacture of tobacco flavors, sachets and periumery; the Tahiti, which are almost devoid of the true vanilla flavor, their odor resembling closely that of heliotrope; the "Wild Vanilla," rived from the V. Pompona, and known sometimes as Pompona vanilla; it comes from Mexico, and but small quantities reach this market. Another very rare variety in this market is the Java vanilla, which has a flavor as fine as that of the Mexican bean and has a much more powerful odor. This bean is reddish brown in color, with pod from 4 to 6 inches long and is chiefly consumed in Holland.

Prices of Vanilla.

de

The Mexican vanilla, owing to its exquisite odor, commands the highest prices. At present, owing to successive short crops, since a heavy snow storm and killing frost visited the vanilla district in 1893, the ruling prices are from 50 per cent to 100 per cent higher than formerly. prime ones sell as high as $16 per pound. Short and inferior pods bring $9, while

Bourbon and Mauritius vanilla sell at from $4.50 to $8: Seychelles brings from $2.50 to $5; Guadaloupes from $3 to $5; Tahiti from $2.50 to $3.50; vanillons from $2.50 to $5, and Mexican cuts $9.

As previously stated, these prices are much higher than in former years. In 1894 Mexicans sold at $7 to $12: Bourbons at $4 to $7; Tahitis at $1.25 to $1.50; in 1895 Mexicans sold at from $7 to $10;