108 MR. EDWARD SCHUNCK ON SOME 



with fuming nitric acid, it does not dissolve, even when 

 the acid is boiled for some time ; it merely melts, and soli- 

 difies on cooling. But a change has nevertheless taken 

 place ; for if the excess of acid be poured off, and the un- 

 dissolved fatty matter, after being washed, be treated with 

 boiling caustic soda-lye, it dissolves entirely, and the solu- 

 tion gives, with acid, a white flocculent precipitate. By 

 the action of nitric acid, therefore, the substance is pro- 

 bably transformed in the same manner as by the action of 

 dry caustic soda. 



In order to prepare the substance for analysis, it was kept 

 in a state of fusion in the waterbath for several hoiu's, then 

 reduced to powder and placed in a bell over sulphuric acid. 

 Its analysis yielded the following results. 



I. 0*2605 grm. obtained from East-Indian cotton gave 

 0*7675 grm. carbonic acid and 0*3365 grm. water. 



II. 0*3130 grm. of the same lot gave 0*9215 grm. car- 

 bonic acid and 0*4010 grm. water. 



III. 0*1615 grm. prepared from American cotton gave 

 0*4760 grm. carbonic acid and 0*2 no grm. water. 



These numbers correspond in 100 parts to 



I. II. III. 



C 80-35 80-29 80-38 



H 14*35 14*23 i4'5i 



O 5*30 5*48 5'" 



lOO-OO lOO'OO lOO'OO 



It would have been easy to devise a formula correspond- 

 ing to these numbers ; but as the quantity of material at 

 my disposal was not sufficient to enable me make any ex- 

 periments to determine the atomic weight of the substance, 

 the accuracy of any such formula would have been a mere 

 matter of probability. That its composition is very simi- 

 lar to that of other vegetable waxes will be seen by com- 

 paring the above numbers with those obtained by Dumas'^ 



* Annales de Chim. et de Phys. t. Ixxv. p. 223. 



