220 Mr. B. C. Brodie's Investigation on the 



analysis. The reasons will hereafter appear why I am justi- 

 fied in saying that, in the cerine which M. Lewy analysed, he 

 did not work on a pure chemical substance ; and that conse- 

 quently any theory founded on the reactions of this body must 

 fall to the ground ; I believe that by more careful inquiry he 

 might have procured that substance of a different melting- 

 point and constitution to that which he found. I have also 

 in vain searched the papers which M. Lewy and M. Gerhardt 

 have published upon this matter, to find some account of the 

 preparation and the analysis of a salt of this so-called stearic 

 acid, an easy and satisfactory experiment, and one which alone 

 in the case of acids of such high atomic weight, can justify the 

 chemist in pronouncing on their constitution. Until such a 

 salt is made, I cannot but consider that the evidence is insuf- 

 ficient, that the remarkable oxidation in question has ever been 

 effected. 



I propose to give to the Society, in three papers, the results 

 of an investigation on the nature of wax. The present paper 

 will contain an inquiry as to the constitution of the so-called 

 cerine ; I mean that portion of the bees'- wax which is the more 

 soluble in boiling alcohol. The second paper will treat of 

 the chemical constitution of a wax from China, a substance 

 which, although it considerably differs in its appearance and 

 properties from bees'-wax, in the form in which it comes be- 

 fore us in nature, is nevertheless, chemically speaking, closely 

 analogous to that body. In a third paper I propose to con- 

 sider the nature of myricine, the other constituent of the bees'- 

 wax itself. 1 may here state, that to ensure the purity of the 

 wax used in the following experiments, I prepared it myself 

 from the comb. It was made by bees in the county of Surrey 

 in the years 1S45 and 1846. This wax I have always used 

 for the first preparation of a substance. For further experi- 

 ment I have sometimes used wax procured in other ways. 



Cerotic Acid. 



If wax melting at about 62° or 6.3° Centigrade be treated 

 with boiling alcohol, a considerable portion will be dissolved. 

 If this operation be repeated, the quantity of substance dis- 

 solved the fifth or sixth time will be evidently less than that 

 dissolved in the first operation. But however often this ope- 

 ration be repeated, there will always be a portion of wax dis- 

 solved. This fact alone might lead us to suspect that any 

 absolute separation of these two portions of the wax, by boiling 

 with alcohol and subsequent crystallization out. of that liquid, 

 was impossible. 



A partial separation can, however, be readily effected, and 



