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



Calculated. 

 C 58 . . . . 41-11 

 H 46 . . . . 5-40 

 Cl la .... 49-99 

 4 . . . . 3-50 



100-00 

 which agree remarkably with the numbers found; it being 

 remembered that the body cannot be crystallized or indeed in 

 any way purified. 



Distillation of Cerotic Acid. 



Cerotic acid is volatile. If the acid as separated from the 

 lead salt by acetic acid be distilled, the acid separated from 

 the distillate and purified by boiling with potash and washing 

 the baryta salt with aether, it will again be procured with a 

 melting-point nearly corresponding to that of the original acid. 



0*251 grm of this substance gave 0*7254 carbonic acid and 

 0*2977 water, giving in 100 parts — 



Carbon . . . 78-80 

 Hydrogen . . 13*19 

 Oxygen . . . 8-01 



100-00 



being precisely the same numbers as the substance gave before 

 distillation. 



A question suggests itself, if it be true that this acid is vo- 

 latile, and it be also true that it exists in the wax in an uncom- 

 bined state, how has it happened that it has never been dis- 

 covered among the products of the distillation of wax which 

 have been so often examined ? 



In truth, it is a remarkable fact, that while this acid, when 

 heated in a nearly pure state, as separated from the lead salt, 

 distils over nearly unaltered, the same substance, when distilled 

 in an impure state, as separated, namely, by alcohol from the 

 wax, and mixed, as in this case, with other wax matter, which 

 is decomposed by heat, itself suffers decomposition. In the 

 course of this investigation other examples have occurred to 

 me of similar facts. 



About three ounces of the cerine, melting at 70° C, from 

 which this acid can be precipitated by acetate of lead, was 

 distilled. The first portions of the distillate consisted entirely 

 of oil. Towards the end a small quantity of solid matter ap- 

 peared. The oil, on standing, separated into two portions : the 

 lower part was withdrawn by a pipette, being but a small 

 portion, say one- twentieth of the whole. The upper portion 



