WAX 1109 



and the last -wing are not provided with them. M. Huber satisfied himself by precise 

 experiments that bees, though fed with honey or sugar alone, produced nevertheless 

 a very considerable quantity of wax ; thus proving that they were not mere collectors 

 of this substance from the vegetable kingdom. The pollen of plants serves for the 

 nourishment of the larvae. 



Bub wax exists also as a vegetable product, and may, in this point of view, be 

 regarded as a concrete fixed oil. It forms a part of the green fecula of many plants, 

 particularly of the cabbage ; it may be extracted from the pollen of most flowers, as 

 also from the skins of plums and many stone-fruits. It constitutes a varnish upon 

 the upper surface of the leaves of many trees, and it has been observed in the juice 

 of the cow-tree. The berries of the Myrica angustifolia, M. latifolia, as well as the 

 M. ccrifera, afford abundance of wax. 



Bees' wax, as obtained by washing and melting the comb, is yellow. It has a 

 peculiar smell, resembling honey, and derived from it, for the cells in which no honey 

 has been deposited yield a scentless white wax. Wax is freed from its impurities, and 

 bleached, by melting it with hot water or steam, in a tinned-copper or wooden vessel, 

 letting it settle, running off the clear supernatant oily-looking liquid into an oblong 

 trough with a line of holes in its bottom, so as to distribute it upon horizontal wooden 

 cylinders made to revolve half immersed in cold water, and then exposing the thin 

 ribbons or films thus obtained to the blanching action of air, light, and moisture. For 

 this purpose the ribbons are laid upon long webs of canvas stretched horizontally 

 between standards, 2 feet above the surface of a sheltered field, having a free 

 exposure to the sunbeams. Here they are frequently turned over, then covered by 

 nets to prevent their being blown away by winds, and watered from time to time, like 

 linen upon the grass field in the old method of bleaching. Whenever the colour of 

 the wax seems stationary, it is collected, re-melted, and thrown again into ribbons 

 upon the wet cylinder, in order to expose new surfaces to the bleaching operation. 

 By several repetitions of these processes, if the weather proves favourable, the wax 

 eventually loses its yellow tint entirely, and becomes fit for forming white candles. 

 If it be finished under rain, it will become grey on keeping, and also lose in weight. 



In France, where the purification of wax is a considerable object of manufacture, 

 about 4 ounces of cream of tartar or alum are added to the water in the first 

 melting-copper, and the solution is incorporated with the wax by diligent manipula- 

 tion. The whole is left at rest for some time, and then the supernatant wax is run 

 off into a settling cistern, whence it is discharged by a stopcock or tap over the 

 wooden cylinder revolving at the surface of a large water-cistern, kept cool by passing 

 a stream continually through it. 



The bleached wax is finally melted, strained through silk sieves, and then run into 

 circular cavities in a moistened table, to be cast or moulded into thin disk pieces, 

 weighing from 2 to 3 ounces each, and 3 or 4 inches in diameter. 



Neither chlorine nor even the chlorides of lime and alkalis can be employed with any 

 advantage to bleach wax, because they render it brittle, and impair its burning quality. 



Wax purified as above is white and translucent in thin segments ; it has neither 

 taste nor smell; it has a specific gravity of from 0'960 to 0-996 ; it does not liquefy 

 till heated to 154^ Fahr. ; but it softens at 86, becoming so plastic that it may bo 

 moulded by the hand into any form. At 32 it is hard and brittle. 



It is not a simple substance, but consists of two species of wax, which may bo easily 

 separated by boiling alcohol. The resulting solution deposits, on cooling, the waxy 

 body called cerine. The undissolved wax being once and again treated with boiling 

 alcohol, finally affords from 70 to 90 per cent, of its weight of cerino. The insoluble 

 residuum is the myricine of Dr. John, so called because it exists in a much larger pro- 

 portion in the wax of the Myrica cerifcra. It is greatly denser than wax, being of the 

 same specific gravity as water ; and may be distilled without decomposition, which 

 cerine undergoes. Professor B. C. Brodie made an extensive series of researches 

 into the constitution of wax. He applies the name cerolic acid to cerine, and repre- 

 sents its formula as C 54 H 54 0* (C-'H^O 2 ). Pure myricine he considers to be repre- 

 sented by C 9 '-H 9 -0 4 (C 16 H 92 O 2 ). Myricino is a palmitate of myricyl. 



Wax is adulterated sometimes with starch ; a fraud easily detected by oil of turpen- 

 tine, which dissolves the former and leaves the latter substance : and more frequently 

 with mutton-suet. This fraud may be discovered by dry distillation ; for wax does 

 not thereby afford, like tallow, sebasic acid (benzoic), which is known by its occa- 

 sioning a precipitate in a solution of acetate of lead. It is said that 2 per cent, of 

 a tallow sophistication may be discovered in this way. 



Wax is sometimes adulterated with stearino, which can be detected, according to 

 Lcbel, even when only in l-20th part. It may be recognised by dissolving the speci- 

 mens in two parts of oil, agitating with water, and adding acetate of lead. The pre- 

 cipitate thus obtained is said to exhibit a very high degree of solidity. 



