Shea Butter atid Chinese Vegetable Tallow, 351 



bag and pressed. A good sized tree will yield a bushel of 

 nuts. 



Shea butter appears to be the same as that which is called 

 Galam butter, and is derived from a species of Bassia ; but the 

 species has not yet been made out, as no specimens of the 

 flower and fruit have reached botanists. The oil upon which 

 the following experiments were made was obtained through 

 the kindness of Dr. Carson of Liverpool, from Mr. Jameson, 

 formerly of this city and now of Liverpool, whose benevolent 

 exertions for the improvement of Africa are so well known. 

 The colour of the oil is white with a shade of green. It is 

 solid at the usual temperature in this country; at 95° it assumes 

 the consistence of soft butter, and at 110° is a clear and liquid 

 oil. When boiled in alcohol the greater part is dissolved, and 

 crystallizes on cooling in needles : it dissolves in cold aether, 

 and separates in needles by evaporation. The oil was sapo- 

 nified by means of caustic potash in a silver basin ; the soap 

 separated from its solution by common salt and decomposed 

 by tartaric acid. After being crystallized out from alcohol 

 five or six times, and freed by pressure from adhering oleic 

 acid, the acid was obtained in fine pearly scales fusing at 142°: 

 it was united with soda, and yielded a salt in fine pearly scales. 

 Its atomic weight was estimated by means of the silver salt. 

 In the first, second and third experiments, the silver salt was 

 formed by precipitating an aqueous solution of nitrate of silver 

 by an aqueous solution of the fatty acid united to soda. In 

 the fourth and fifth experiments, an alcoholic solution of the 

 acid was precipitated by a solution of nitrate of silver in 

 alcohol, and hence the excess of acid. 



I. 3*73 grains of silver salt gave 1'05 metallic silver = 1*126 

 oxide of silver = 30*19 per cent. AgO. 



II. 10*65 grains of silver salt gave 301 silver =3*221 oxide 

 of silver = 30*23 per cent. AgO. 



III. 2-85 grains gave -861 AgO = 30-21 per cent. 



IV. 4*71 grains gave 1*30 silver =1*394 AgO= 29*53 per 

 cent. 



V. 2*72 grains gave -743 silver = *797 AgO = 29*30 per 

 cent. 



The following table will express the per-centage composition 

 of the silver salt by these five experiments : — 



I. II. III. IV. V. 



Acid . . . . 69-81 69*77 69*79 70*41 70*70 

 Oxide of silver . 30*19 30-23 30*21 29*59 29*30 

 Taking the mean of all these experiments, the constitution 

 of the silver salt will be — 



Acid .... 70*10 

 Oxide of silver . 29*90 



