ON ADIPOCIRE, AND ITS FORMATION. 15 
Duffy’s remarks were made upon the glycerine compounds of tle fatty acids; it appears 
from the above examination of the liquids 1° and 6°, as if something similar took place 
with the fatty acids themselves, although, with one or two exceptions, in other determina- 
tions of melting points noted in this article, I have not observed the same phenomenon of 
transparency. 
A few experiments were now made with the alcoholic liquid 6°. A concentrated alco- 
holic solution of acetate of magnesia added to this liquid, produced no precipitate, but 
micaceous crystalline scales fell on adding acetic acid, and upon adding more acetic acid, 
and heating, besides these crystals, an oil floated on the surface, which solidified on cool- 
ing, and which behaved like a fat, and gave the melting point of palmitic acid, viz.: 62° 
(solidifies gradually from 47° to 539°.) The crystals gave a small quantity of ash when 
burned on platina foil, and on being decomposed by hydrochloric acid, gave a fat with the 
melting point of stearic acid 72° 73°, and solidifying at 60° 55°. The mother liquid con- 
tained too little fat to experiment upon. ‘To another portion of the liquid 6°, alcoholic 
acetate of niagnesia was added without addition of acetic acid, and the solution evaporated 
in aretort. The first crystals which appeared contained a fat which fused at 65°, 68° 5, 
and solidified at 62°, 58°. 
The solid crystalline fat No. 6° which was removed from the liquid 6°, and which was 
the most highly purified result from the crystallization of this specimen of adipocire, was 
now examined more particularly; an alcoholic solution was made upon which to try the 
different experiments. Fifteen grammes of the fat required 300 of alcohol of 93 per cent. 
to keep it in solution; but before having added so much alcohol,.on standing for a short 
time 0.656 grammes of pearly crystalline scales fell, which had a melting point of 62°5, 
and solidified at 55°5. The fat of the liquid after these crystals had fallen, when 'preci- 
pitated by water, melted at 58° 61°, and solidified at 55° 5: these crystals, re-crystallized 
from alcohol, melted at 62° 5, and solidified at 58°, 57°; these were dissolved a third time, 
in twenty times their weight of 93 per cent. alcohol, which deposited, on standing, less 
than a milligramme of tufted crystals of the form of palmitic acid, of which it had the 
melting point 62°: more alcohol was added to the solution, and it was divided by fractional 
precipitation with acetate of magnesia and the addition of a little ammonia with heat, into 
two portions, weighing 0.256 and 0.164 grammes, and they had the same melting point. 
This fat appears, therefore, to be palmitic acid, one of the acids into which Heintz divided 
margaric acid. The crystals deposited from alcohol do not at all resemble those of mar- 
garic acid, but under the microscope are lamellar. These two fats were converted respec- 
tively, by an excess of nitrate of silver, into silver salts, 0:24725 gave 0-074 Ag. = 29-93 
per cent. and 0:14275 gave 0.04175 Ag. = 29-25 per cent., which corresponds to the per- 
centage of silver in the palmitate of this base. 
