CHEMISTRY. 279 



itself very soon. Acetic acid was formed, united with carbonate of lime, and 

 disengaged the carbonic acid, which, rising into the atmosphere, produced a 

 scum over the surface of the water. The smell of the plant began to exhale 

 at the same time so powerfully as to cause serious accidents and violent 

 headache to the persons exposed to it, even at a great distance. By degrees 

 the plant assumed a dark color, became soft and soapy, and was finally reduced 

 to a blackish mixture, formed of fragments of woody fibres and of very thin 

 coal, unctuous to the touch, and with an intolerable stench. 



In the last stage of putrefaction, the water in which the plant had been 

 steeped became stinking, blackish, and mucilaginous; on its surface was 

 formed a dark pellicle, sprinkled with yellowish stains, reflecting in some 

 points the color of the rainbow, and emitting a disagreeable odor ; when 

 exposed to the action of fire it yielded azotic productions. The same experi- 

 ments, carried on with covered vessels, under the action of solar heat, gave 

 the same results. Eepeated upon the chara of brackish waters, the saline 

 principle of which is so powerful as to destroy all other plants, the ob- 

 servations presented the same phenomena, but with a greater degree of 

 intensity. 



MM. Savi and Passerini think themselves entitled to conclude, from these 

 repeated experiments, that the puterine, or fetid principle of the genus chara, 

 if not the only and general cause of the malaria, is, at least, one of the most 

 powerful causes of its production in Italy. This mischievous principle, the 

 odor of which is the same with that of marshy exhalations, extends its 

 influence with still greater- effect whenever the diminution or evaporation of 

 the waters leaves the plants uncovered, and by its volatility it escapes, and is 

 kept suspended in the atmosphere. 



NEW VEGETABLE WAX. 



The following description of a new variety of vegetable wax recently 

 brought to this country, has been furnished to us by Dr. A. A. Hayes, of 

 Boston. The commercial relations of our country, extending along the rivers 

 of South America, are making known to us the products of the vast forests of 

 the interior, many of which have a high value in the arts, and are new to 

 commerce. The wax hi question is obtained by boiling the deep green leaves 

 of a shrub resembling laurel, abounding in the forests back from Para and 

 Babia, and is used to some extent as a substitute for wax in the manufacture 

 of candles. It has a light tint of greenish-yellow color, transmitting nearly 

 white light through thin portions; it is hard, the angles of the fragments 

 scratching gypsum. Its fracture is slightly conchoidal, lustre more dull than 

 that of ordinary wax. By rubbing it becomes electrically excited, and takes 

 and retains a fine polish ; it is brittle, without softening when compressed 

 between the fingers. The average sp. gr., determined on many specimens, is 

 at 60 F. 1-000, or the same as distilled water. When heated to 120 P. for 

 some time, it loses moisture, and exhales a pleasant balsamic odor, not unlike 

 that of pinks. 



100 parts at 212 F. became a transparent fluid after frothing, having lost 

 2-10 per cent, of volatile matter this being mostly aqueous moisture due to 



