CHARM OF MICROSCOPICAL STUDY.
This concludes the account of my very imperfect attempt to trace the life history of a lowly plant. Its study has been to me a source of ever increasing pleasure, and has again demonstrated how our favorite instrument reveals phenomena of most absorbing interest in directions where the unaided eye finds but little promise. In walking along the banks of the little stream, where, half concealed by more pretentious plants, our humble Vaucheria grows, the average passer by, if he notices it at all, sees but a tangled tuft of dark green "scum." Yet, when this is examined under the magic tube, a crystal cylinder, closely set with sparkling emeralds, is revealed. And although so transparent, so apparently simple in structure that it does not seem possible for even the finest details to escape our search, yet almost as we watch it mystic changes appear. We see the bright green granules, impelled by an unseen force, separate and rearrange themselves in new formations. Strange outgrowths from the parent filament appear. The strange power we call "life," doubly mysterious when manifested in an organism so simple as this, so open to our search, seems to challenge us to discover its secret, and, armed with our glittering lenses and our flashing stands of exquisite workmanship, we search intently, but in vain. And yet not in vain, for we are more than recompensed by the wondrous revelations beheld and the unalloyed pleasures enjoyed, through the study of even the unpretentious Vaucheria.
The amplification of the objects in the engravings is about 80 diameters.
Read before the San Francisco Microscopical Society, August 13, and furnished for publication in the Press.
JAPANESE CAMPHOR—ITS PREPARATION, EXPERIMENTS, AND ANALYSIS OF THE CAMPHOR OIL.[1]
By H. OISHI. (Communicated by Kakamatsa.)
LAURUS CAMPHORA, or "kusunoki," as it is called in Japan, grows mainly in those provinces in the islands Shikobu and Kinshin, which have the southern sea coast. It also grows abundantly in the province of Kishu.
The amount of camphor varies according to the age of the tree. That of a hundred years old is tolerably rich in camphor. In order to extract the camphor, such a tree is selected; the trunk and large stems are cut into small pieces, and subjected to distillation with steam.
An iron boiler of 3 feet in diameter is placed over a small furnace, the boiler being provided with an iron flange at the top. Over this flange a wooden tub is placed, which is somewhat narrowed at the top, being 1 foot 6 inches in the upper, and 2 feet 10 inches in the lower diameter, and 4 feet in height. The tub has a false bottom for the passage of steam from the boiler beneath. The upper part of the tub is connected with a condensing apparatus by means of a wooden or bamboo pipe. The condenser is a flat rectangular wooden vessel, which is surrounded with another one containing cold water. Over the first is placed still another trough of the same dimensions, into which water is supplied to cool the vessel at the top. After the first trough has been filled with water, the latter flows into the next by means of a small pipe attached to it. In order to expose a large surface to the vapors, the condensing trough is fitted internally with a number of vertical partitions, which are open at alternate ends, so that the vapors may travel along the partitions in the trough from one end to the other. The boiler is filled with water, and 120 kilogrammes of chopped pieces of wood are introduced into the tub, which is then closed with a cover, cemented with clay, so as to make it air-tight. Firing is then begun; the steam passes into the tub, and thus carries the vapors of camphor and oil into the condenser, in which the camphor solidifies, and is mixed with the oil and condensed water. After twenty-four hours the charge is taken out from the tub, and new pieces of the wood are introduced, and distillation is conducted as before. The water in the boiler must be supplied from time to time. The exhausted wood is dried and used as fuel. The camphor and oil accumulated in the trough are taken out in five or ten days, and they are separated from each other by filtration. The yield of the camphor and oil varies greatly in different seasons. Thus much more solid camphor is obtained in winter than in summer, while the reverse is the case with the oil. In summer, from 120 kilogrammes of the wood 2.4 kilogrammes, or 2 per cent. of the solid camphor are obtained in one day, while in winter, from the same amount of the wood, 3 kilogrammes, or 2.5 per cent., of camphor are obtainable at the same time.
The amount of the oil obtained in ten days, i.e., from 10 charges or 1,200 kilogrammes of the wood, in summer is about 18 liters, while in winter it amounts only to 5-7 liters. The price of the solid camphor is at present about 1s. 1d. per kilo.
The oil contains a considerable amount of camphor in solution, which is separated by a simple distillation and cooling. By this means about 20 per cent. of the camphor can be obtained from the oil. The author subjected the original oil to fractioned distillation, and examined different fractions separately. That part of the oil which distilled between 180°-185° O. was analyzed after repeated distillations. The following is the result:
| Found. | Calculated as C10H16O. | |
|---|---|---|
| C = 78.87 | 78.95 | |
| H = 10.73 | 10.52 | |
| O = 10.40 | (by difference) | 10.52 |
The composition thus nearly agrees with that of the ordinary camphor.
The fraction between 178°-180° C., after three distillations, gave the following analytical result:
C = 86.95
H = 12.28
—————
99.23
It appears from this result that the body is a hydrocarbon. The vapor density was then determined by V. Meyer's apparatus, and was found to be 5.7 (air=1). The molecular weight of the compound is therefore 5.7 × 14.42 × 2 = 164.4, which gives
| H = (164.4 × 12.28)/100 = 20.18 | |
| or C12H20 | |
| C = (164.4 × 86.95)/100 = 11.81 |
Hence it is a hydrocarbon of the terpene series, having the general formula CnH2n-4. From the above experiments it seems to be probable that the camphor oil is a complicated mixture, consisting of hydrocarbons of terpene series, oxy-hydrocarbons isomeric with camphor, and other oxidized hydrocarbons.
Application of the Camphor Oil.
The distinguishing property of the camphor oil, that it dissolves many resins, and mixes with drying oils, finds its application for the preparation of varnish. The author has succeeded in preparing various varnishes with the camphor oil, mixed with different resins and oils. Lampblack was also prepared by the author, by subjecting the camphor oil to incomplete combustion. In this way from 100 c.c. of the oil, about 13 grammes of soot of a very good quality were obtained. Soot or lampblack is a very important material in Japan for making inks, paints, etc. If the manufacture of lampblack from the cheap camphor oil is conducted on a large scale, it would no doubt be profitable. The following is the report on the amount of the annual production of camphor in the province of Tosa up to 1880:
Amount of Camphor produced. Total Cost.
1877.......... 504,000 kins.... 65,520 yen.
1878.......... 519,000 " .... 72,660 "
1879.......... 292,890 " .... 74,481 "
1880.......... 192,837 " .... 58,302 "
(1 yen = 2s. 9d.)
(1 kin = 1-1/3lb.)
From the Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry.