218 IV. OILY COMPOUND COMBUSTIBLES.— 

 BEES' WAX. 



Bees' wax, Cera flava. Forms the partitions of the cells in 

 which bees store their honey ; obtained by melting the comb ; 

 demulcent, used in diarrhoea and dysentery, made into an emul- 

 sion 3j ter quaterve in die ; from iSorth America, Russia, Africa, 

 Hamburgh, and the East Indies. 



Ceva flave purificata. Common bees' wax melted, 

 scummed, and left to settle. 



Block white wax, Cera alba in massis. From bees' wax, by 

 exposing it in thin flakes to the action of the sun, wind, and rain, 

 frequently changing the surface thus exposed by remelting it, and 

 reducing it again to thin flakes ; used in making candles, and in 

 white ointments, for the sake of its colour. 



Virgins' wax. Cake white 2vax, Cera alba in offis. In round 

 thin cakes. 



Bee uread, Projjolis. Collected or formed by bees, for the 

 purpose of covering the bottom of the hive, and everything 

 in their way which is too heavy to be removed by them ; it is a 

 mixture of rosin with wax ; fume antiasthmatic. 



White lac, Pe la ? Ambra alba. Coll. Phys. Coll. ; resem- 

 bles white wax, but is secreted by insects in the same manner as 

 lac : from China. 



ANIMAL RESINS. 



Ambergris, Ambra grisea. Found in the sea and in the intes- 

 tines of the spermaceti whale, Physeter macrocephalus, mixed 

 with the beaks of the cuttle fish ; appears to be a secretion of the 

 animal when in a morbid state, has been found in the human in- 

 testinal canal, though some §till suppose it to be a fossil substance, 

 oozing out into the sea, where, swimming about, it is sometimes 

 swallowed by that whale ; aphrodisiac, gr. iij to x ; used in per- 

 fumery ; when burned, smells agreeably, whence it is useful in 

 pastilles. 



Black amber,. Ambra nigra. Of a darker colour than ambra 

 grisea, but in other respects the same. 



Grain musk, Moschus in granis. From musk pods, stimulant, 

 antispasmodic, gr. ij to 9ss every three or four hours in a bolus. 

 Has the strongest smell of any natural substance hitherto known, 

 and when used in a very small quantity, augments the smell of 

 other substances, without imparting its own ; when burned, smells 

 disagreeably. 



Russian castor, Castoreum Rossecum. From Russia castor 

 pods ; orange brown, bitter, acrid, with a peculiar strong and un- 

 pleasant smell ; antispasmodic, perhaps emmenagogue, gr, x to 3j, 

 in a bolus. 



