280 M. Chevreul on Fatty Bodies, and [Oct. 



ful laminated crystals. They were further purified by a second 

 solution in alcohol and subsequent crystallization, and were then 

 compared with cetine. The two substances were found to crys- 

 tallize in the same manner, whether they were suffered to cool 

 slowly on the surface of water, after having melted them, or were 

 deposited from alcohol. A thermometer plunged into this crys- 

 stalline matter when melted stood at 113*5°, when it began to 

 become turbid; at 111 there was a considerable degree of con- 

 gelation, but the process was not completed until it reached the 

 temperature of 110°. One hundred parts of boiling alcohol, of 

 the specific gravity of *834, dissolved 2*9 parts of the crystalline 

 matter of the Delphinus and three of cetine : neither of the solu- 

 tions had any action upon coloured re-agents. 



About 09 parts of each of the two bodies were separately 

 boiled in double their weight of potash for 30 hours : the cetine 

 became united with the potash sooner than the other substance ; 

 indeed a part of it appeared to be incapable of saponification. 

 Yet when this part was digested in a platinum capsule with a 

 solution of potash for 15 hours, an homogeneous mass was 

 formed, although the fluid part did not become transparent. 

 Both the saponified spermaceti and the saponified substance 

 from the Delphinus were heated in a solution of potash, and in 

 both cases the fluids became transparent. After remaining at 

 rest for the space of a year, the fluids were found to have depo- 

 sited a considerable quantity of pearly matter : when they were 

 heated, the pearly matter of both of them disappeared, but more 

 slowly from the crystalline substance of the Delphinus than from 

 the cetine. The fluids, when concentrated, were mixed with 

 the tartaric acid ; from the crystalline matter of the Delphinus, 

 0*82 of a fatty matter, fusible at 104°, was obtained, and from 

 the cetine, 0*76 of a fatty matter, fusible at 100*5. 



The two fatty substances were treated with the water of 

 barytes, and the soaps which were formed were then subjected 

 to the action of alcohol at the temperature of the atmosphere. 

 The results were as follows, from the crystalline matter of the 

 Delphinus : 1 . A substance which was not acid, fusible at 

 116-5°, and weighing 0*151; 2. An acid substance, fusible at 

 113°, weighing 0*552, and which produced a large quantity 

 of pearly matter, when dissolved in potash. There was obtained 

 from the cetine : 1 . A substance which was not acid, fusible at 

 125*5°, and weighing 0*227 ; 2. An acid substance, fusible at 

 98*5°, weighing 0*385, and which produced much pearly matter 

 with potash, M. Chevreul observes, that if these experiments 

 do not decidedly prove the perfect identity of the crystallizable 

 substance of the Delphinus and of cetine, they at least prove 

 their strong analogy, since potash only partially acidifies them. 



We next proceed to an examination of the oil of the Del- 

 phinus, after the separation of the crystalline matter. Its colour 

 was a little deeper than that of the oil in its natural state ; its 



