of a Wax from China. 381 



100-00 100-00 100-00 

 These numbers give the formula C^ Hgg O a . 



Atomic weight. Calculated in 100 parts. 



396 100-00 



This is the formula of an alcohol. Other experiments de- 

 cided that this was in truth the class of bodies to which this 

 substance belonged, and led me to adopt the particular for- 

 mula for it which I have given. This alcohol I call cerotine. 

 If this substance be heated with lime and potash according to 

 the method of Dumas, hydrogen gas is given off, and if the 

 experiment be conducted with care there will hardly be traces 

 of any other volatile product. In the tube is found an acid. 

 The experiment requires considerable heat, and I have found 

 that it is best made, in a long combustion-tube, suspended by 

 means of two corks in a large tube of porcelain, which forms 

 an air-bath. The apparatus is heated by charcoal in a com- 

 bustion-trough. In this manner the heat can be regulated 

 with the greatest precision. The acid having been purified in 

 the usual manner, which it is unnecessary again to refer to, is 

 a substance highly crystalline in its texture and perfectly re- 

 sembling in its sensible properties the cerotic acid from bees'- 

 wax, with which acid analysis shows it to be identical. The 

 melting-point of this preparation was about a degree higher 

 than that of the cerotic acid from wax, namely 81° C. 



0-259 grm. gave 0*754 C0 2 and 0-309 HO, which corre- 

 spond in 100 parts to — 



Carbon . . . . 79' 39 



Hydrogen . . . 13-28 



Oxygen .... 7*33 



100-00 

 This agrees with the formula C^ H M 4 . 



Calculated in 100 parts. 

 C^ . . . . 79-02 

 H^ . . . . 13-17 

 4 . . . . 7-81 



100-00 



