Why was a condenser not necessary in the final distillation

Methyl benzoate has a very high boiling point i.e. 199°C.Therefore a water-cooled condenser is not advisable as it might crack the condenser tube.So in such cases air condenser tube is normally used for such distillation procedure.

the old alchemists made significant contributions to science even though there starting premises were off a bit. their conclusions after failure would steer them into better directions for investigation. science is no more than close observation and the initial mistakes result in rethinking and retrying experiments.