COCOA-NUT, AND BEN OILS. 235 



Cocoa-nuts ; these last, also, yield a large quantity of oil, which 

 congeals, at the ordinary temperature of the air, into a white 

 fatty substance. In Ceylon, where this fruit is most abund- 

 antly produced, its oil is employed by the natives for a great 

 variety of purposes. It makes a most excellent lamp-oil, except 

 from its tendency to congeal by a slight amount of cold ; and for 

 this purpose it is employed by the Cingalese ; whose greatest 

 consumption of it, however, is for the anointing their bodies. In 

 this country, a process has been discovered, by which the oil 

 may be separated into two parts ; one resembling fat, which may 

 be applied to the making of candles ; whilst the other is as fluid 

 as most other oils, and is particularly adapted for lamps. The 

 oil is also well adapted to the wants of the soap-maker. Its 

 consumption in Britain is much increasing ; in the year 1839 

 nearly 40,000 hundred-weight of the oil was employed in various 

 ways in this country. The oil known as Ben-oil is of more 

 importance than might be supposed, from the small quantity of it 

 introduced into this country. It is produced from a tree, grow- 

 ing in the East Indies, Egypt, and the Levant, which belongs 

 to the same group with the Tamarind. The peculiarity of this 

 oil consists in its very slight tendency to become rancid, and in 

 its perfect freedom from smell ; on which account it is much 

 used by the perfumers, to retain the scent of the more fragrant 

 oils. At a low temperature, it separates into two parts, the one 

 solid and the other liquid ; and the latter is employed by watch- 

 makers, in preference to any other oil, for lubricating their deli- 

 cate works, on account of its having no action upon the metals. 

 373. The essential or volatile oils are mostly obtained from 

 the leaves or flowers of plants ; sometimes, however, they exist in 

 the wood and bark, or in seeds. In all instances they possess a 

 powerful scent ; and the degree of this depends upon the ten- 

 dency, which the fragrant oil has to diffuse itself. In some of 

 the most odorous flowers, this tendency is so great, that the oil 

 cannot be procured in a separate form ; and their perfume is 

 obtained, by causing the flowers to impart it to some fixed oil ; 

 for which purpose Ben oil. is preferred, where it can be obtained. 



