12 ON ADIPOCIRE, AND ITS FORMATION. 
The fats were then saponified with Potassa; No. 1 by Chevreul’s process, and No. 2 by 
Heintz’s process with alcohol. The soaps were precipitated several times, by solution of 
common salt; no ammonia nor cholesterine were detected during the process; a heavy, 
flocculent soap fell during the melting, which was examined, and found to be a soap of 
alumina, oxide of iron and magnesia; probably from impurities in the salt. No glycerine 
was present (by direct experiment) in either of the specimens. An examination for vola- 
tile fatty acids, gave negative results for number one, and a very slight trace in number 
two of volatile fatty acids, acetic and butyric, and one or two minute floating oil drops, 
most probably from the alcohol employed. 
The fats thus obtained, were very dark in colour, and when cooled, after being melted 
in a capsule on water, solidified with a smooth, waxy surface, with the fibres of crystalli- 
zation vertical. At the point of crystallization, the expansion pushed up, and broke the 
soft cake of fat in the centre. No. 1 weighed 237 and No. 2,644 grammes. 
No. 1, (the melting point of which was 57°, the solidifying point 52°) was melted with 
an equal weight of alcohol, and on cooling, filtered and pressed; a very dark liquid ran 
through, a drop of which, evaporated on a glass slide, gave dendritic, stellate, polarizable 
crystals. To the residue weighing 177 grammes, 100 grammes of alcohol were added, and 
the fat which separated, together with some depositing from the last filtrate by standing, 
were added to the fat of the previous operation; the fat which separated from this solution 
of 177 grammes, melted at 59°-60°, and solidified at 53°-54°. The dark-coloured alco- 
holic liquid, filtered from these fats, was saponified by an alcoholic solution of potassa; the 
alcohol expelled by boiling with water, and after transferring to a retort, was boiled with 
sulphuric acid. The distilled water, examined for volatile fatty acids, gave negative 
results. The fat was very dark in colour, melted at 55°, and solidified at 50°, though it 
was difficult to determine these points exactly, as the change exhibited itself very gradu- 
ally. A portion of this fat was converted into a potassa salt, and precipitated by chloride 
of barium; the filtrate from which, treated with hydrochloric acid, gave a small quantity 
of a yellow fat, not further examined. 
The baryta salts were treated by ether, and the residue by boiling alcohol. The 
ethereal, alcoholic solutions, and the residue, were severally decomposed by hydrochloric 
acid. The ethereal solution gave a small quantity of oleic acid, in very dark drops. The 
alcoholic solution fat was also small in quantity, and dark. It fused at 61°-62°, and 
solidified, as well as could be judged, at 45°. The residual fat, which was the largest in 
quantity, yellow, and of a waxy surface, melted at 45°-46°, and solidified at 45°-40°. 
The purification of fat No. 2, was now undertaken, and experimented upon more par- 
ticularly than No. 1, since this specimen of adipocire conformed to the shape of part of 
the human frame. 
