40 Memoir on the Nature of fat Stilstances. 



hard bodies, susceptible of being reduced into powder, breaking 

 with more lustre than white wax, and having the same taste, 

 smell, and properties of waxing bodies, but it has not the same 

 tenacity; and instead of receiving the various impressions which 

 the fingers give it, when it is sHghtly softened, it is reduced into 

 a lamellous powder : in this respect it resembles the Louisiana 

 wax ; but the latter melts at the temperature of 34- R. according 

 to Bostock, whereas the matter in question does not enter into 

 fusion sooner than 53^, and on cooling it does not crystallize 

 better than common wax: it is also infinitelv less fusible than 

 the adipocire of dead bodies, although it seems in other respects 

 to resemble it much in its chemical properties, and particularly 

 in the faculty which it shares with the latter, of being combined 

 immediately with the alkalies to form soap ; whereas the other 

 iatty substances do not become susceptible of uniting completely 

 with it until after a long ebullition, and after undergoing an al- 

 teration which makes them closelv resemble the waxy substance 

 the properties of which we are endeavouring to ascertain. The 

 latter has such an aptitude to combine with the alkalies, that it 

 disengages the carbonic acid from the alkaline carbonates to 

 form soap : this property is common to certain fat bodies only 

 easily soluble in alcohol, like adipocire and the oil of soaps ; 

 that of churchyards, and perhaps also that of mushrooms, as 

 well as their oil. 



The same substance contracts with ammonia a combination 

 .soluble in water, but the soapy liquor deposits a part of this com- 

 bination. 



When this fat substance is melted, it unites with and is dis- 

 solved in alcohol in every proportion and with astonishing faci- 

 Hty. If the liquid contains but a small quantity of alcohol, it 

 goes into a mass more or less solid upon cooling ; but when the 

 liquor is diluted with a greater quantity of alcohol, a white flaky 

 and abundant precipitate is formed. In the cold, alcohol dis- 

 solves but a very small quantity, because it has to overcome the 

 force of cohesion which this substance opposes to it : thus 100 

 parts of alcohol at the temperature of !0° R. only dissolved 

 21-2. Warm ether dissolves it at least as rapidly as warm al- 

 cohol, i. e. in every proportion : when reduced to powder and 

 put aside to digest with 100 parts of ether, the latter dissolved 

 l2 parts of cirous matter at 10° R. The volatile oil of turpen- 

 tine at the same temperature, only takes the twentieth part of 

 its weight. 



If we compare the totality of the physical and chemical pro- 

 perties of this substance w-ith that of the other fat bodies, we 

 shall fii d that among the latter the adipocire of the churchyards 



seems 



