j4n Account of a vegetable Wax from Brazil. 433 



and on the surface nearly white. The same change was 

 produced by sleeping the wax in thin plaies in an aqueous 

 solution of oxymurialic gas, but I have not hitherto suc- 

 ceeded in rendering it perfectly white. 



10. Muriatic acid has little action on the wax : when 

 boiled upon it for some hours, it destroys much of its colour. 



11. Sulphuric acid changes the colour of the wax to a 

 pale brown, and when water is added, it becomes of a deep 

 rose colour; the inflammability and the fusibility of the 

 wax are slightly impaired i)y this process. 



When heat is applied, the wax is decomposed with the 

 usual phEenomcnaj sulphurous acid is developed, and char- 

 coal deposited. 



12. Acetic acid has very little action on the wax, when 

 cold. 



When the wax is boiled in this acid, a minute portion is 

 dissolved, and a^ain deposited as the solution cools. By 

 Jong continued boiling in acetic acid, the wax is rendered 

 nearly white; but when it is afterwards washed with water, 

 and fused, it resumes its former colour. 



13. When the wax is fused in oxymuriatlc gas, it is ra- 

 pidly decomposed, and parting with hydrogen and oxygen, 

 n)uriatic acid and water are formed, and charcoal is depo- 

 sited. 



14. The results of the destructive distillation of the ve- 

 getable wax are very analogous to those of bees wax. 



Antacid liquor mixed with a volatile oil are the first 

 products ; these are succeedeti by a large proportion of a 

 butyraceous oil, and a very small quantity of cliarcoal af- 

 fording traces of lime remains in the retort. During the 

 process, a little carburetted hydrogen gas is given off. 



1 have not considered it necessary to dwell upon the re- 

 lative proportions of these different products, as they will 

 necessarily vary according to the rapidity with which the 

 distillation is conducted. 



§ III. — From tlic precedmg detail of experiments It ap- 

 pears, that although the Sv)uth An)erlcan vegetable wax 

 possesses the characteristic properties of bees wax, it differs 

 from that substance In manv of its chemical habitudes; it 

 also differs from the other varieties of wax, namely, the 

 wax of tlie Myrica cerifera*, of lac t> and of white lac X- 



* Vide Dr. B-.)stock's Experiments on the Wax of the Myriea cerifera, in 

 Nicholson's Journal for M.irch 180:!. 



f Vide Analytical l'.x|ierimcnt6 and Observations on I.ac, by Charles Hat- 

 «lii-tt, lisq. l-.R.S. iu tlic I'hiloBophii;al IVansaciioii'; for 1804. 



X Vide Oiir.ervations and ExperriiiPiits on a Wax-like .Substance from 

 Madran, bv O.-nr^c Pe.irinn, M.I), f .R.S in the Phii. Traus. lor i:9'>. 



' Vol. 3S. No, i64. De?c. 1811. Ee The 



