’ astringent than the berries. 
WATURAE 
gent, and it precipitated ferruginous 
solutions of a black colour. 1 
heated it ina very clean iron vessel, 
and it quickly turned black. ‘Tu 
discover whether this. property was 
owing to gallic acid alone, or to 
the tanning principle, I mixed a 
small quantity of the decoétion with 
a solution of ‘glue, and no precipi- 
tate was formed. 
lt is, therefore, to the conside- 
rable quantity of gallic acid contain- 
ed by the berries of the myrice, that 
the property of curing dysenteries, 
which its extraét possesses, is ow- 
ing; on this account, I think, that 
the leaves and bark of the tree 
would furnish an extract still more 
The 
examination of the wax ‘presents 
more interesting resuits: whether 
this wax be extracted by the decoc- 
tion of the berries, or by the solu- 
tion of the white dust in alcohol, 
precipitated by water, this. melted 
wax is always of a yellow colour, 
inclining to green. Its consistence 
is harder than that of bees wax ; it 
is dry, so friable as to be reduced 
toa powder; in short, it is evi- 
dently more highly oxygenated than 
the wax prepared by bees. Candles 
made of the wax of the myrica, 
give a white flame, a clear light, no 
smoke, do not run, and exhale, 
_if fresh, a balsamic odour, which 
the inhabitants of Louisiana consi- 
der extremely salubrious for the 
sick. When distilled in a retort; 
this wax passes over in great part 
like butter. That portion is whiter 
than it was; but it loses its con- 
sistence, and has only that of tallow. 
Another portion is decomposed, 
furnishes a small quantity of water, 
sebacic acid, and empyreumatic oil ; 
much carbonated hydrogen gas, and 
carbonic acid gas, is disengaged ; a 
HISTO K Y. 80? 
black bitumen, resembling charcoal 
is left in the retort’: common wait 
aéts in the same manner in distillas 
tion. 
I have said above that alchohol 
dissolved the wax of the myrica 5, 
but ether dissolves it much better, 
and it separates itself in the form of 
stalagmites in the evaporation of the 
liquid. © Neither the one nor the 
other takes away its colour, ~ If 
this wax is boiled in weak sulphuric 
acid, it becomes rather whiter; but 
there is no perceptible combinatiow 
of the acid with it. Yellow bees 
wax, treated in the same way, does 
not change its colour. Oxygenated 
muriatic acid perfectly hleaches both 
kinds of wax. ‘Vegetable wax, how- 
ever, retains its colour with most 
obstinacy. 
Vegetable wax dissolves in ame 
moniac : the solution assumes a 
brown colour; part of the wax 
turns to soap. Volatile alkali has 
much less action on bees wax. Both 
kinds of wax, stirred violently in a 
boiling solution of caustic pot-ash; 
become white, and form a reaj soap, 
as Kalm the traveller has observed. 
The whiteness which the wax ac. 
quires in this saponification, is not 
anew phenomenon. M. Chaptals 
in his process’ for bleaching, by the 
vapour of alkaline leys, has proved 
that the colouring matter of vegeta 
bles yields to the aétion of alkalis. 
Some chemists attribute this effeét to 
the direct combination of soda or 
pot-ash with the coloured extractive 
part ; a combination which'’brings it 
into nearly a saponaccous state, and 
renders it soluble. 
I imagine that, in this operons 
the alkali exercises on the oil or om 
the wax a double attraction, at first 
direét with the constituent princi- 
ples of the oil, afterwards predis~ 
3F 4 posing 
