loo liTcmoir on the JVax-Tree 



myrica give a white fianie and a beautiful light, without 

 fmoke, do not run, and wh€n new emit a ballamic odour 

 which the inhabitants of Louifiana confider as very benefi- 

 cial to the fick : when difiiiled in a retort, it pslTes in a 

 great part to the flate of butter. This portion is whner than 

 it was before, but it lol'es its confiftence, and acquires that 

 of tallow. Another portion is decouipofed, furni [lies a lit- 

 tle water, febacic acid, and emp\ reiuiiaticoil. A great deal 

 of carbonated hvdrogen gas and carbonic acid gas arc difen- 

 gaged, and there remains in the retort a black carbonaceous 

 bitumen. Common wax wlien dihilled, exhibits the fame 

 phaenomena. 



I have already faid that alcohol diifulves the wax of the 

 myrica, but ether dilfolves itnrich better, and, by the eva- 

 poration of the liquid, it ieparates in the fomi of I'talagmites. 

 Neither of thefe liquids deflrov its colour. If this wax be 

 boiled with dilute fnlphuric acid, it becomes a little whiter, 

 but thereisno fenfible combination of the acid with it. The 

 yellow wax of bees, treated in the fame manner, did not 

 change its colour. 



Oxj'genated munatic acid bleaches both kinds ot waxper- 

 feftly. The vegetable wax, however, lofcs its colour with 

 more difficulty. 



The vegetable wax diffolve? in ammonia. The filulion 

 aflumes a brown colour : a part of ihe wax becomes faponar 

 ceous. The volatile alkali has much lefs at^^ion on the wax 

 of bees. 



Thefe two kinds of wax, when firongly agitated in a boil- 

 ing fiiliition of caudic potafli, wafh and form a real foap, 

 as obferved by Kalm the traveller. The vvhitenels which 

 wax acquires by this faponilication is not a new phenome- 

 non. C. Chaptal, in his proccfs for bleaching by the Itcam 

 of alkaline lees, has proved that the colouring principle of 

 vegetables vields to the aiSlion of alkalies. Some clicmifls 

 afcribe this efteft to the direft combination of foda or potafti 

 with the coloured cxtraftive part, and a combination which 

 brings it to a (late almofl faponaceous and renders it foluble. 



According to my opinion, the alkali, in this operation, 

 txercifes over the oil or wax a double attradlion, firft dircft 

 with the conftitU'-nt principles of the oil, then predifpoling 

 and favouring the combination of the oxygen of tlie atmo- 

 fphere with od or wax. I do not know whctlier anv one be- 

 fore me ever entertained this idea ; but it was fuggedcd by 

 obferving what takes place when foap is decompofed by an 

 acid. The oil is always concrete and more oxygenated than 

 it was before. 



It 



