"Take fresh almonds, and bruise them in a stone mortar; then put them into a hempen sack, and express the oil by a press without heat."

Oleum Amygdalarum, Dub. Oil of Almonds.

1 When oil is distilled, as soon as it begins to boil a large quantity of gas is disengaged, consisting of a mixture of carbonated hydrogen and oxide of carbon. The first product of the distillation is a yellow-coloured, very odorous substance, of a moderate consistence, very soluble in alcohol, reddening strongly the tincture of litmus, and forming a true soap with dilute liquor of potassa. It may be regarded as a mixture of acetic, sebacic, oleic, and margaric acids, empyreumatic oil, a volatile oil slightly odorous, and a peculiar volatile matter, very fetid, not acid, soluble in water; and which excites coughing and tears in the operator when the receiver is opened. The second product is a light-green fluid, which becomes brown on exposure to the air; has a slight empyreumatic odour, but does not excite coughing or tears. It docs not redden tincture of litmus; alcohol, even when aided by heat, dissolves a very small portion only of it, and it is not affected by potassa. It burns like an essential oil,; and is volatilised, without change, in close vessels.

The third product is an orange-red, solid, transparent substance, inodorous and insipid : breaking with a waxy fracture, melting at a heat above 100° centig.; and dissolving in hot alcohols, from which it is precipitated, unaltered on cooling. Aether is its proper solvent. Annates de Chimie et de Phys. torn. xxx. pp. 1-20.

"Bruise fresh almonds in a mortar; and then express the oil by a press, without heat."

Syn. Huile d'Amandes (F.), Mandelnohl (G.), Olio di Mandarleh (I.), Vadomcottay unnay ( Tam.).

The oil obtained from both the sweet and the bitter almond is equally free from bitterness, if heat be not employed. Sixteen ounces of almonds yield about five ounces1 of a bland, inodorous oil, of a very slightly sweetish taste, which is at first a little turbid, but soon becomes clear. Its colour is a very pale greenish yellow, and its specific gravity .932.2 The oil from the bitter almond, it is said, keeps longer without growing rancid than that from the sweet almond. It is soluble in ether, in the proportion of f 3 x. to iv. of aether.

Medical properties and uses. - This oil is demulcent and emollient, and is used in coughs and other pulmonary complaints, united with water by means of mucilage or the yolk of egg and sugar. A mixture of f iv. of almond oil, and

viij. of acetate of lead, forms an useful injection at the commencement of gonorrhoea. The dose of the oil for internal administration is from f 3 iv. to f j.