= * ee 
. 
Dr. Smith on the Composition of Spermaceti. 301 
Arr. IV.— The a. and Products of Distillation of | 
: Spermaceti, with some few remarks upon its oxidation by Ni- — 
tric Acid ; by J. Lawrence Surru, M. D. of Charleston, 8. C.* 
Or all the fatty bodies that have been examined, there is per- : 
haps no one, whose composition has been so imperfectly arrived at 
as that of spermaceti, and it is a little remarkable that Chevreul, 
with the accuracy which distinguishes his researches upon the 
fats, should not have ascertained moré nearly its true composition. 
Chevreul made the examination of spermaceti in the same 
way as he did that of other fatty bodies, by digesting it with 
a solution of an alkali, and ‘examining the products that com- 
bined with the alkali, and those that did not. In the case of 
Spermaceti he obtained a solid substance that did not» combine 
_ with either soda or potash, resembling strongly in its external 
characters the fats, and upon analysis with bioxide of copper gave 
Carbon, - - - - - - 79.76 
Hydrogen, ~ - - - - 13.95 
Oxygen, - - - - - - 6.29. 
100.00 
From this he calculated its formula (C,,H,,0+HO), and this 
substance he called, from some peculiarities in its composition, 
when compared with that of alcohol and of ether, athal, or rather 
__ hydrated athal. é 
‘That part of. the spermaceti which combined with the potash, 
Chevreul considered to be composed of margaric and oleic acids, 
without apparently any strong grounds for so doing ; he gives us 
no analyses of these acids, and the following is all that is said 
~ eoncerning them. 
«The margarie acid of -spermaceti is fusible at from 131° to 
_ 132° Fah., crystallizes in little radiating needles, is insipid and 
inodorous; at 140° Fah. it dissolves in all proportions in alcohol . 
of .820, the solution reddening strongly litmus. . 
“T treated ‘the margarate of potash with alcohol to see if I could 
obtain margari¢c acid fusible at 140° Fah. I submitted a portic _" 
of the same salt to five successive treatments, and obtained r he 
ROR Seana 
_* Communicated by the author to this Journal, te 
“. 
