SUGAR, MOLASSES, CONFECTIONS, AND HONEY. 837 



ing the Japan wax was filled throughout with a thick flocculent substance, and those 

 containing paraffin and spermaceti had the upper third occupied by a light flocculent 

 mass. 



Various author! ties say that wax is adulterated with sulphur, yellow ocher, calcined 

 bones, starch, tallow, paraffin, stearin, Japan wax, etc. No sampleswere found adul- 

 terated with sulphur, yellow ocher, calcined bones, or paraffin. Wheat starch to the 

 amount of 11.4 per cent was found in one instance. It was estimated by treating the 

 wax with a warm 2 per cent solution of sulphuric acid. The wax was then well 

 washed, dried, and reweighed, and the loss calculated as starch. Japan wax was 

 found in 7 samples, stearin in 4, resin in 9, and tallow in 3. The total number of 

 samples examined was 87, of which 24 were adulterated. 



The method used for mechanical admixtures was to dissolve the wax in turpentine. 

 Any sediment remaining may be sulphur, yellow ocher, calcined bones or starch. 



Wax is separated by boiling alcohol into three portions myricin, which is in- 

 soluble; cerin, which crystallizes out on cooling, while the cerolein remains dissolved. 

 J. F. Babcock* gives the proportions as myricin 30 per cent, cerin 65 per cent, and 

 cerolein 5 per cent. According to Bloxam the proportion is, myricin about one- 

 third, cerin nearly two-thirds, and cerolein about 4 per cent. 



Ten grams of pure wax were boiled with alcohol. The larger portion settled to 

 the bottom. The clear liquid was poured off, and the treatment repeated several 

 times. On cooling, the alcohol white feathery crystals were deposited. These were 

 filtered off and the filtrate evaporated to dryness. 



The insoluble portion represented 65 per cent ; that portion soluble in hot alcohol 

 but not in cold, 29.50 per cent, and the portion soluble at all temperatures, 5.90 per 

 cent. Total, 100.4. 



Myricin fuses at 63. It is insoluble in alcohol, soluble in warm chloroform, benzine, 

 and ether. From the two latter solutions it mostly separates on cooling in light, 

 feathery crystals, fusing at 67. That portion soluble in cold ether is a bright lemon- 

 yellow colored solid, fusing at 56. Brodie confines the name myricin to the portion 

 insoluble in cold ether. 



Two grams of myricin fused with 1 gram caustic potassa become fluid, but harden 

 on cooling. This melt, dissolved in water and decomposed with hydrochloric acid, 

 gives a precipitate. This precipitate, when boiled with lime water, forms insoluble 

 palmitate of calcium, and another wax-like body is liberated. 



Brodie gives this body the name of melissylic alcohol, and the formula, Ceo H 6 i O, 

 HO. Hence, myricin is a compound ether palmitate of melissyl C< H 92 04 =Cjo H M 



O, GSJ HSI Os. 



Others call this body melissin. It fuses at 104, is of a light-yellow color, insoluble 

 in alcohol and ether. According to Brodie, when melissylic alcohol is distilled with 

 hydrate of potassa, it is decomposed, hydrogen is evolved and melissate of potassium 

 is formed, the reaction being the same as that by which acetate of potassium is pro- 

 duced when ordinary alcohol is treated in a similar manner. 



Cerin or cerotic acid as first separated from boiling alcohol fuses at 53, but by 

 repeated crystallization it may be raised to 70 C. The proportion varies in differ- 

 ent samples, but the average is about 28.6 per cent. 



Brodie finds it to be 22 per cent, and in one sample from Ceylon it was entirely 

 wanting. 



In order to produce the acid in a pure state, dissolve the cerin in boiling alcohol 

 and add a boiling alcoholic solution of acetate of lead, by which a heavy, white 

 precipitate of cerotate of lead is produced. This is filtered while still hot, and 

 the precipitate boiled in strong alcohol and filtered. The precipitate was again 

 boiled in ether and filtered. The filtrate from the alcoholic washing, on evaporating 

 spontaneously, left a small amount of a waxlike body resembling myricin, but fus- 

 ing at 61. The lead salt was decomposed by strong acetic acid, and the body which 



*Proc. Amer. Pharm. Assoc., 1867, 374. 

 18808 ]So. 13 14 



