192 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



" In alkaline solutions, by ordinary treatment, no saponification takes 

 place, after long boiling. The wax retains a little alkali after it has 

 been washed in water, and the compound is to a small extent soluble 

 in water, but has not the characters of soap. This alkaline wax will 

 absorb a considerable quantity of an alkaline solution, in which it has 

 been boiled ; washing in water removes the excess of alkali, no defi- 

 nite compound being formed. 



" When distilled from a nearly closed vessel, it leaves 0.44 per cent 

 of carbon and ash, the latter amounting to .10 only. 



" This wax can be supplied, should a want exist commercially, at a 

 price intermediate between that of tallow and the ordinary wax. The 

 only application at present known in which it exhibits useful proper- 

 ties is in forming a basis for a preparation used in waxing furniture 

 and polished wood-work." 



Mr. J. H. Abbot exhibited profiles of two routes for the 

 Pacific Railroad, drawn by order of government ; also profiles 

 of the highest grades of all the working railroads of the United 

 States. He also exhibited a mineral from a digging in Cali- 

 fornia, taken twenty feet below the surface. It was a re- 

 markably pure specimen of hydrate of alumina, with a 

 minute quantity of hydrate of silica. 



Mr. T. S. Hunt made a communication on the chemical 

 law of equivalent volumes. He showed that the law applies 

 to all solid bodies that are homoeomorphous. 



Dr. Durkee exhibited under the microscope the circulation 

 of the contents of the cell of Chara. 



Four Kiiudred and fonrteeutli meeting. 



May 8, 1855. — Monthly Meeting. 



The President in the chair. 



Professor Agassiz stated that, since the preceding meeting, 

 he had received one hundred and fifty specimens of one 

 and the same species of coral, Mussa angulosa, Oken, the 

 examination of which had satisfied him of the truth of his 

 observations at the previous meeting, that many of the species 

 described by authors are but immature specimens of species 



