444 On Vegetable Wax, &c. 



tated by the action c.f the water which is condensed in the 

 worm. That with which I made the following experi- 

 ments was procured from lavender ; but it seemed to differ 

 in no respect from that which I have procured from the 

 oriental attar of roses, or from the distillation of rose-water. 



Although I have called it wax in consideration of its 

 vegetable origin, it bears in fact a much nearer resemblance 

 to spermaceti in its general properties. Like that, its feel 

 is greasy, and it is deposited m a crystallized mass at the 

 bottom of the vessel, just as that substance is deposited 

 from the oil of the Cachalot whale. 



The few comparative experiments which follow, will 

 show its nature more completely. Having but a very small 

 quantity, I could not conveniently determine its specific 

 gravity ; but it is much lighter than either wax or sperma- 

 ceti, since it swims in sulphuric ether. It crystallizes from 

 its solutions in resplendent scales, and in this property it 

 approaches rather to spermaceti than wax. Its colour is 

 white, and its texture flaky. It is fusible at 96", while 

 wax is only fusible at 120°, and spermaceti at 102^. This 

 account of the fusibilities of wax and spermaceti differing 

 from that commonly received, which states them at 142® 

 and 133° respecikely, it is necessary to say ihat the mode 

 which I took toTletermine this temperature, and to which 

 I was compelled by the scantiness of my materials, was by 

 causing them to melt on hot water in which a thermometer 

 was immersed, and noting the heat at the moment^of con- 

 gelation. In boiling alcohol it dissolves readily and in as 

 large proportion as spermaceti, more readily and in larger 

 proportion than wax ; and it is deposited again on cooling. 

 The three substances seemed equally soluble in boiling 

 ether, which however dissolves less of them than alcohol 

 does. Its habits with the other compound inflammably?, 

 and with the alkalies, resemble those of wax andspermaceti, 

 and afford no distinction. 



It is volatilized without apparent change in a tempera- 

 ture considerably lower than spermaceti, and I need not 

 add, that its vapour is equally inflammable. I had no adi- 

 pocire with which to compare it. 



Considering these circumstances, we may perhaps regard 

 it as a vegetable concrete oil, resembling spermaceti rather 

 than wax, yet differing from it in the characteristic circum- 

 stances of superior volatility and inferior specific gravity, 

 and bearing a relation to essential oils similar to that which 

 spermaceti does to the fat ones. 



LXIII. On 



