Mr. B. C. Brodie 07i Myricine, 261 



number of equivalents of carbon, whether it have precisely the 

 formula I have above given or not. 



Mixed with the palmitic acid of 62^, is found another acid 

 of a much lower melting-point, and which presents similar 

 difficulties of separation from the palmitic acid to those of the 

 substance mixed with the melissine from the melissine itself. 

 This acid is very soluble in alcohol, unctuous to the touch, 

 and of a very low melting-point. I do not, however, mean to 

 assert that the other wax-alcohol exists in the wax in combi- 

 nation with this unctuous acid, the presence of which is very 

 probably due to another source. 



This alcohol may possibly, as well as the melissine, be com- 

 bined with palmitic acid, or it may be in some altogether dif- 

 ferent form in the wax. Even after long boiling with alcohol, 

 the myricine has a slight wax smell, and it is possible that 

 this unctuous acid is the product of the action of potash upon 

 the oil which is one of the constituents of the wax, and from 

 which I have in fact procured an acid of this nature. This 

 oil, or rather grease, which was analysed by Lewy, is a very 

 curious substance. The other constituents of the wax are, in a 

 pure state, inodorous and crystalline, and to it the wax owes its 

 tenacity and peculiar smell. I have made some experiments 

 as to its nature, and procured from it also an acid and an un- 

 saponifiable substance; I will not, however, here enter upon the 

 matter, hoping at some future timetoresumeits investigation. 



I must not omit to mention, with reference to the bees'- 

 wax from Ceylon, of which I spoke in a former paper, and 

 which contained no cerotic acid, that it possesses all the general 

 characters of the other portion of the wax. Like the impure 

 myricine, it contains more than one substance. The wax itself 

 has a melting-point of Qb^'S. When digested with aether in 

 the cold, a portion is taken up by the aether, and a residue 

 left of the melting-point of 67°; and, when dissolved in aether, 

 if the aetherial solution be filtered while warm from the first 

 portions of the precipitate which crystallizes out, a substance 

 may be obtained, of the melting-point of 72°, crystalline in 

 appearance, hardly at all acted on by a solution of potash, 

 but readily saponified by melted potash ; resembling in short 

 in all its properties the pure myricine. The products of the 

 saponification of the wax itself closely resemble those of the 

 impure myricine, and present similar difficulties of separation. 



An acid may be obtained from it having the character of 

 palmitic acid, and I have also procured from this wax the 

 substance melissine, having a melting-point of 84<°. The ana- 

 lysis VI, p. 247, was made from a preparation from Ceylon 

 wax. 



