IS ' VEGETABLE WAX PROM BRAZIL. 



stroyed by washing with dilute muriatic acid, and its original 

 yellow colour restored. 



Neither the fusibility, nor the juflamraability of the wax, 

 is iai paired by this process, 



Nitric acid, diluted with eight parts of water, produces 

 the same change in the colour of the wax as the concentrated 

 acid. 



Attempts to Having been unsuccessful in my attempts to bleach the 



bieach the ••. --ij^tj 



^^.^j^ wax in its original state, 1 made some experiments to ascer- 



tain whether its colour could be more easily destroyed, after 

 it had been acted upon by nitric acid; and found, that, by 

 exposing it spread upon glass to the action of light, it be- 

 • came in the course of three weeks of a pale straw colour, 

 and on tlie surface nearly white. The same change was 

 produced, by steeping the wax, in thin plates, in an aqueous 

 solution of oxirauriatic gas, but 1 have not hitherto suc- 

 ceeded In rendering it perfectly white. 



ActloR of mu- 10. Muriatic acid has little action on the wax : when 



fi8t:cacid: boiled upon it for some hours, it destroys much of its colour. 



"^f siiiphurie: n. Sulphuric acid changes the colour of the wax to a pale 

 brown, and when water is added, it becomes of a deep rose 

 ooloQr ; the inflammability and the fusibility of the wax are 

 slightly impaired by this process. 



When heat'is applied, tlie wax is decomposed with the 

 usual phenomena, sulphurous acid is developed, and char- 

 coal deposited. 



o: acetic; 12. Acetic acid has very little action on the wax, when 



cold. 



When the wax is boiled m this acid, a minuta portion is 

 dissolved, and again deposit d as the solution cools. By long 

 continued boiling in acetic acid, the wax is rendered nearly 

 white ; but when it is afterward washed with water, and 

 fused, it resumes its former colour. 



and of oximu- 13. When the wax is fused in oximuriatic gas, it is rapidly 



riatic gas. decomposed, and, parting with hidrogen and oxigen, muri- 

 atic acid and water are formed, and charcoal is deposited. 



Piodiicts of 14. The results of the destructive distillation of the vege- 



disuliaiion. table wax are very analogous to those of bees wax. 



An acid liquor, mixed with a volatile oil, are the first pro- 

 ducts ; these aire succeeded by a large proportion of a buty- 



raceous 



