428 Scientific Intelligence. 



Bees-wax is, by the action of boiling alcohol, separated into a solu- 

 ble portion which has been called cerine and a comparatively insoluble 

 substance designated nyricirie. The cerine by repeated solution in 

 boiling alcohol may be obtained in an approximately pure state ; it 

 then fuses at about 70° or 72° C. and is readily soluble in caustic 

 potash. If a boiling alcoholic solution of this is mixed with an alco- 

 holic solution of acetate of lead also boiling, a voluminous precipitate 

 is obtained which is boiled with repeated portions of alcohol as long as 

 this takes up anything. The lead salt is then decomposed by acetic 

 acid and yields a highly crystalline acid which separates from its alco- 

 holic solution on cooling, in fine grains ; it melts at 78° C. To this sub- 

 stance the name of cerotic acid is given ; the analysis of the acid and 

 its salts shows that it is monobasic and has the formula C 54 H 54 4 

 C 27 H 54 2 according to M. GerhardOs notation. The ether is obtained 

 by the usual process, and its analysis confirms the composition above 

 ascribed to the acid. By the action of chlorine a substitutive product 

 is obtained, which formula is C 27 (H 42 Cl 12 ) 2 ; it is still an acid 

 and yields an ether corresponding to the one just noticed. Cerotic 

 acid when pure is volatile for the greater part, without change, but 

 when mixed with the other materials of the wax it is completely de- 

 composed by distillation. To prove that the cerotic acid is really an 

 ingredient of the wax and is not found in the process, Mr. Brodie has 

 shown that by repeated crystallization of the cerine from ether, it at 

 last acquires the fusing point and composition of the cerotic acid 

 obtained by the other process. The proportion of cerotic acid as 

 ascertained by precipitation with acetate of lead, was found in one spec- 

 imen to be 22 per cent. ; and it was generally present in the English 

 wax as submitted to examination. The investigations upon the tree- 

 wax of China, however, showed the complete absence of cerotic acid 

 and gave rise to the discovery of the alcohol of that acid. 



This wax which is an article of commerce from China, appears from 



be the product of an insect, the Coccus cerift 



i 



which feeds upon the Rhus succedaneum and some other trees. It is 

 white and crystalline, resembling spermaceti, but is harder, more brittle, 

 and more fibrous in its structure; it fuses at 83° C, and is little soluble 

 in alcohol or ether, but dissolves readily in naphtha and may be crystalli- 

 zed from it. It is insoluble in solution of potash but by fusion with caustic 

 potash is decomposed. By decomposing the solution of this in water 

 by chlorid of barium and washing the baryta salt with alcohol, a neu- 

 tral crystalline substance is obtained which when purified by crystalli- 

 zation in ether melts at 79° C. Its analysis leads to the formula C 5 « 

 "56 ^2 or Co 7 H 56 O, It is evidently, therefore, homologous with 

 spirit of wine and ethol and is the alcohol of cerotic acid, the homologue I 



of acetic and etholic acids. To this new alcohol, the author applies 

 the name of cerotine ; but cerotol should be substituted in accordance 

 with the nomenclature of the French chemists, to which we have gen- 

 erally conformed, and which restricts the termination ine or in to alka- 

 loids. When heated with potash-lime, cerotol evolves hydrogen gas 

 and yields eerotate of potash, the identity of which with that obtained 

 from bees-wax was determined by analysis. 





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