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Transactions. 



all the members of the series from the highest to the lowest should be 

 accurately determined and correlated. Moreover, it is desirable that the 

 proof of the constitution of the higher members of the series should be 

 demonstrated with as absolute rigidity as has been the case with the lower 

 acids from acetic to arachidic. 



A. CEROTIC ACID AND ITS DERIVATIVES. 



Since cerotic acid may be obtained from montan wax only after a very 

 tedious and laborious process, and since the cerotic acid of beeswax has 

 been shown to be identical with that prepared from montan wax, bees- 

 wax was therefore used for the preparation of cerotic acid in large quantity. 



The beeswax employed for the isolation of cerotic acid was New 

 Zealand unbleached wax, which was obtained from a business firm 

 dealing in large quantities of the natural product, and was guaranteed 

 by them to be pure unadulterated New Zealand beeswax. 



Th° beeswax \va> examined by Hiibl's method, which consists in 

 determinations — (1) the free-acid value, (2) the saponification value, 

 and the determination of the ratio of these two values. 



The results are given in milligrams of caustic potash for 1 gram of 

 beeswax. In each determination a blank experiment, using exactly the 

 same quantities of alkali and alcohol, was performed simultaneously with 

 that on the beeswax. 



The following are the results of analysis : — 



Lewkowitsch gives numerous estimations of European beeswax. In un- 

 bleached wax, he points out the following variations for normal beeswax : — 



Th^se figures indicate that the beeswax used had rather a low saponifica- 

 tion value, thus inferring the existence of much cerotin in the beeswax. 

 This supposition was strengthened by the fact that on potash-lime fusion* 

 of beeswax, and subsequent isolation and crystallization of the acids pro- 

 duced, a product was obtained melting near the temperature required for 

 cerotic acid. 



Cerotic acid was prepared from this beeswax by Brodie's method — 

 namely, extracting quantities of beeswax with successive volumes of ethyl 

 alcohol until the free-acid value for 20 c.c. of the last extraction had been 



N -i 



reduced to 2-90 c.c. ya KOH. Four extractions were necessary to do this. 



lg={£ * According to Gmelin, myricin contains varying quantities of cerotin and real 

 jnyricin. 



