66 THE PALMS OF EUROPE AND AFRICA. 



not for slaves, but for palm oil ; and now it is 

 for that very palm oil that the fleets are sent, 

 which, but for the efforts of such men as he, 

 would still have been groaning with human 

 victims. Mv. Beutley was subsequently con- 

 nected with "Wedgwood in his famous pottery, to 

 the beauty of which his excellent taste greatly 

 contributed. Palm oil enters largely into the 

 composition of some kinds of soap, and is used 

 in immense quantities as a lubricant for ma- 

 chinery. But it is in the manufacture of can- 

 dles that palm oil is now coming into most 

 extensive use, and although only a few years 

 ago it would have been thought impossible to 

 apply so soft and oily a material to that purpose, 

 yet, by the aid of chemical science, not only is 

 the dillicully conquered, but candles have been 

 produced lit for the table of the nobleman. We 

 may give a brief description of the process as 

 it is pursued in the largest establishment of the 

 kind in London. Into each cask, as it is 

 landed on the wharf, a steam pipe is intro- 

 duced, and the heat which the steam imparts 

 soon melts the palm oil into a liquid. It is 

 then pumped into large receiving vessels, where, 

 by the application of certaiti chemical ingre- 

 dients, its orange yellow colour vanishes, and 

 is changed to a dirty white. By other pro- 



