90 UTILIZATION OF MINUTE LIFE. 



I must refer my readers. We have already seen 

 how it is produced by the bee, the Chinese Coccus, 

 and the manner in which it is extracted from the 

 honeycomb. We have also seen that wax is pro- 

 duced by many vegetables, amongst others by the 

 cabbage ; it is also found in the pollen of flowers, 

 from which it was long supposed the bees procured 

 it. But the wax contained in pollen differs from 

 beeswax ; it is the substance known as propolis, 

 which the bees use to fill up fissures in the nest or 

 hive. The wax of the honeycomb can be separated 

 into two distinct substances by means of spirits of 

 wine ; the first, called cerine, dissolves in boiling 

 spirit, and the liquid on cooling deposits it in white 

 gelatinous crystals. The substance which remains 

 undissolved is myricine, which does not crystallize. 



Wax is still employed in considerable quantities 

 (in spite of the discovery of stearine candles) for 

 candles used in Roman Catholic churches. It has 

 of late years been notably employed in photo- 

 graphy, to wax the paper and render it translucide. 

 The wax produced by certain wild bees, called 

 Mellipona, and gathered at Costa Rica, in the Island 

 of Cuba, etc., has lately been applied to the manu- 

 facture of lithographic ink. Finally wax is em- 

 ployed for an infinite number of minor uses, for 

 making anatomical models, busts, dolls, etc. 



