260 Mr. B. C. Brodie on Myricine. 



These analyses perfectly agree with the formulae for the 

 acid, C^j, H49 O4. 



Calculated. 



100-0 



If we compare the numbers of this acid with those of the 

 substance from the oxidation of which it was derived, we shall 

 see that it is impossible to account for the changes in the same 

 simple manner as in other cases of such transformation. It 

 would not be difficult to reckon out a formula that without 

 great violence should account for it, but it is hardly worth 

 while to do so, since notwithstanding the perfect agreement of 

 the calculated and theoretical numbers, it is impossible to 

 assert with certainty that either it or the body from which it 

 is derived are pure chemical substances. There is too great 

 a difficulty in the perfect separation of the melissine to lead us 

 to hope that it can absolutely be removed by the method I 

 have given. I failed in attempting to procure in larger quan- 

 tities this substance of 72°. The melting-point was very con- 

 stant at 75°, but on oxidizing a considerable quantity of this 

 substance with lime and potash, acids were procured, which 

 by crystallization were separable in the same manner as the 

 substance from which they were derived, and the purification 

 and perfect separation of which presented the same difficulties. 

 I obtained in this way an acid having nearly the melting-point 

 of 85°, the melting-point of melissic acid, and also an acid 

 with a lower melting-point than 77°, but of which the melting- 

 point was not so absolutely constant as to induce me to inves- 

 tigate it further. I give however these analyses, since they 

 unquestionably prove the existence of some other body in ad- 

 dition to the melissine, in the products of the saponification of 

 wax, which by oxidation is capable of passing into an acid 

 belonging to the series Qrn^mO^. Since it is only a pure 

 body or a mixture of acids of this series which could give rise 

 to the results I have given, and from the great difficulty of 

 separation, the acid in all probability contains a very large 



