%%() WAX. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

 WAX. 



WAX is a solid compact unctuous substance, 

 generally of a yellow colour. It is secreted by 

 animals and vegetables, but the vegetable secre- 

 tion of it is often combined with resin. 



BEES-WAX may be said to be a concrete animal 

 oil, holding the same relation to the fixed oils that 

 resin does to the essential oils. It is secreted by 

 certain small sacklets on the body of the bee, as 

 occasion requires, for constructing the combs in 

 which the family provision and the young brood 

 are deposited ; the wax of commerce is procured 

 by melting down these combs, in the manner 

 already described. 



Prime wax is of a bright yellow colour and an 

 agreeable odour, somewhat like that of honey. 

 The best is procured from combs which have 

 been either wholly unoccupied, or occupied by 

 nothing but honey. When first secreted, it is 

 white, semitransparent, and very fragile : it after- 

 wards becomes stronger, and assumes more or 

 less of a yellow hue. This deepening of colour 

 is owing, partly, to its being covered with a 

 yellowish varnish by the bees, (for an account of 



