254 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE. 



examine some wax that had been purchased by a tradesman. I 



found it to be a compound of beeswax and and 



... (I have purposely left the nouns out because I do not 

 wish to educate the ignorant who may feel inclined to be dishonest 

 in such matters). Adulterated wax can generally be detected by 

 the senses — by the touch, by the odour, and by the appearance. 

 But there are other kinds of wax besides beeswax. They are 

 cheaper, and also much inferior. These 'are sometimes incorporated 

 with genuine beeswax, and when some of these adulterants are 

 used the senses are at fault. Alcohol will overcome this latter 

 difficulty. The specific gravity of beeswax is, as already stated, 

 965, and that of water, 1,000. Beeswax is lighter than water, 

 therefore it will float in water. 



"Wax differs from fat in that it contains no glycerine. The 

 fatty acids united with alkali always liberate glycerine in soap- 

 making, e-g-, but if wax be saponified, i.e-, converted into soap, 

 no glycerine presents itself, and thus the chemist is furnished with 

 a method of detecting a certain class of adulterations." — Cheshire, 

 p. 589. 



TO TEST WAX FOR ADULTERATION. 

 There is a very simple test by means of which the adulterated 

 article can easily be detected. Pill a clear glass bottle about half- 

 full of water ; place in the water a piece of pure beeswax, add 

 alcohol to the water until the piece of pure beeswax just settles 

 on the bottom of the water. Now take a piece of the supposed 

 adulterated wax, drop it in the bottle with the pure beeswax • if 

 it has been adulterated with other varieties of wax of commerce, 

 I will not name them for the same reason before stated, it will 

 float. The lesser the quantity of genuine beeswax there is in the 

 mixture the lighter will be its specific gravity, or, in other words, 

 the more readily it will float. If the sample of adulterated wax 

 has only had added to it 4 or 5 per oent. of wax other than that 

 of bees, it will sink to the bottom very similar to pure beeswax ; 

 but its descent will be slower, and while it rests at the bottom, 

 if the water be slightly agitated, of the two samples resting at 

 the bottom, the pure will remain stationary whilst the sample 

 of mixtures will more or less oscillate according to the percentage 

 of the added adulterant. 



DISCOLOURATION— TO PREVENT. 

 It is not infrequent at our agricultural shows to find com- 

 petitive samples of wax of more or less a leaden hue, pervading 



