WAX. 



in a month's time the whok, when it did not exceed one- 

 iixth of an inch in thicknefs, was quite white ; whilft no 

 change at all took place in that which was kept in darknefs. 

 Alcohol has no fenfible aftion on wax when cold, but if 

 the fluid be boiled, it will diffolve rather lefs than one- 

 twentieth of its weight of wax ; and the greater part of it 

 Ceparates, when cold, in the form of white bulky flocculi. 



yet the gelatinous folution obtained by boiling it in fpirit 

 of wine, by mixture with a thick mucilage of gum arable, 

 becomes foluble in water, fo as to form therewith an 

 emulfion or milky liquor : the wax itfelf is made in hke 

 manner foluble, without the intervention of fpirit, by 

 thoroughly mixing it with the gum in fine powder ; but 

 when thus diflblved, it proves ftiU infipid, and perfeftly void 



while the fmall quantity that remains is wholly precipitated of acrimony 



by water. Such is the refult of Pearfpn's and Bollock's ex- Wax is foluble abundantly in the fixed oils, and melted 



periments ; whereas Fourcroy, Chaptal, and Nicholfon with them, produces an uniform mafs, the confiftence of 



affert that it is infoluble in this fluid. Sulphuric ether dif- which, whatever be the proportion of each, is interme- 



folves' wax when heated, and much more copioufly than di^te between the two. It is diflblved but fparingly in 



wax . - 



alcohol diflblves it, but the greater part, like that of the 

 former, is feparated by cooling, and the remainder by water. 

 Wax boiled in cauftic potafli makes the fluid turbid, and in 

 procefs of time rifes to the furface in a flocculent form. 

 The portion of the wax, held in folution by the clear alkaline 

 liquoi, may be feparated by an acid, and the refidue float- 

 ing on the furface is fo far converted into a faponaceous 

 ftate as to have lofl; its inflammability, and to be no lefs fo- 

 luble in pure water than white foap, and again precipitable 

 by acids nearly in its original form, with a reftoration of its 

 inflammability. Pure ammonia nearly refembles the fixed 

 alkalies in its adlion ; but the refulting faponaceous form is 

 lefs foluble in water. 



When yellow wax has been long fwimming in a folution 

 of carbonate of potafti, it becomes grey ; and this colour 

 is entirely changed into a milk white by fubfequent digef- 

 tion in nitric acid, and the wax refumes its whitenefs. 



If wax be difl^illed with a heat greater than that of 

 boiling water, it may be decompofed. By this diftil- 

 lation, a fmall quantity of water is firfl; feparated from the 

 wax, and then fome very volatile and penetrating acid, 

 (probably a modification of the acetous,) accompanied 

 ■with a fmall quantity of a very fluid and very odoriferous 

 oil. As the diftillation advances, the acid becomes more 

 and more fl:rong, and the oil more and more thick, till 

 its confifl;ence be fuch, that it becomes folid in the 

 receiver, and is then called butter of wax. When the dif- 

 tillation is finilhed, nothing remains but a fmall quantity 

 of coal, which is almoft. incombuftible, from the want of 

 fome faline matter. Wax cannot be kindled, unlefs it 

 be previoufly heated, and reduced into vapours ; in which 

 refpeft it refembles fat oils. The oil and butter of wax may, 

 by repeated diftillations, be attenuated, and rendered more 

 and more fluid, becaufe fome portion of acid is thereby 

 feparated from thefe fubfl;ances ; which effeft is fimilar to 

 what happens in the diilillation of other oils and oily con- 

 cretes ; but this remarkable effeft attends the repeated 

 diftillation of oil and butter of wax, that they become more 

 and more foluble in fpirit of wine ; and that they never ac- 

 quire greater confiftence by the evaporation of their more 

 fluid parts. Boerhaave kept butter of wax in a glafs vefTel 

 open, or carelefsly clofed, during twenty years, without ac- 

 quiring a mure folid confiftence. Wax, its butter, and its 

 oil, differ entirely from effential oils and refins, in all the 

 above-mentioned properties ; and in all thefe perfectly re- 

 femble fweet oils. Hence Macquer concludes, that wax 

 only refembles refins in being an oil rendered concrete by an 

 acid ; but that it differs eflentially from thefe in the kind of 

 oil, which in refins is of the nature of eflential oils ; while 

 in wax and other analogous oily concretions, it is of the na- 

 ture of fweet, unftuous oils, that are not aromatic, and 

 not volatile, and are not obtained from vegetables by es- 

 preflion. 



Although wax is not diffolublc at all in watery liquors, 



eflential oils. 



Bleached wax burns with a very pure white light, with- 

 out any offenfive fmell, and with much lefs fmoke than tal- 

 low ; and as it is lefs fufible than tallow, it requires a fmaller 

 wick. (SeeCANDLES.) Bleached wax melts at about 155^ of 

 Fahrenheit ; and the unbleached at 142°, according to Pear- 

 fon and Nicholfon, and alfo Dr. Boftock, but at 117^ ac- 

 cording to Fourcroy ; whilft tallow melts at 92°, fperma- 

 ceti at 133°, adipocireat 127°, and the pelaof the Chinefe 

 at 145°. (See Nicholfon's Journal, vol. i. p. 70, 4to.) 

 The fpecific gravity is lefs than that of water, being about 

 .96. 



The yellow wax is brought to market in round cakes about 

 two inches thick ; and large quantities of it are imported 

 from the Baltic, the Levant, and the Barbary coaft. 



The white wax is ufed in the manufafture of candles, 

 torches, tapers, figures, and a variety of other wax-works. 

 See Candles, &c. 



It is alfo an article of the Materia Medica, and ufed as an 

 ingredient, partly forgiving the requifile confiftence to other 

 ingredients, and partly on account of its own emollient 

 quality, in plafters, cerates, and divers pomatums and un- 

 guents for the complexion. 



The yellow fort, diflblved into an emulfion, or mixed 

 with fpermaceti, oil of almonds, conferve of rofes, &c. 

 into the form of an eleftuary ; or divided, by ftirring into it, 

 when melted over a gentle fire, as much as it will take up of 

 powdery matter, as the compound crab's-claw powder, has 

 been given alfo internally, and, as- fome have pretended, often 

 with great fuccefs, in diarrhoeas and dyfenteries, for ob- 

 tunding the acrimony of the humours, fupplying the natural 

 mucus of the inteftines, and healing their excoriations or 

 erofions. 



The empyreumatic oil, into which wax is refolved by dif« 

 tillation with a ftrong heat, is greatly recommended by 

 Boerhaave and others, for healing chaps and roughnefs of 

 the fldn, for difcufling chilblains, and with proper fomenta- 

 tions and exercife, againft ftiffnefs of the joints, and con- 

 traftions of the tendons. It is, without doubt, fays Dr. 

 Lewis, highly emollient ; but does not appear to have any 

 other quality by which it can aft in external appUcations ; 

 it has nothing of the acrimony or pungency which prevail 

 in all the other known diftilled vegetable oils ; though in 

 fmell it is not a little difagreeable and empyreumatic ; a cir- 

 cumftance which occafions it to be at prefent more rarely 

 ufed than formerly. As the wax fwells up greatly in the 

 diftillation, it is convenient to divide it, by melting it with 

 twice its weight of fand ; or putting the fand above it in the 

 retort, that it may mingle with the wax when brought into 

 fufion. The oil, which is preceded by a fmall quantity of 

 acid liquor, congeals in the neck of the retort, from whence 

 it may be melted down, by "applying a hve coal, and made 

 fluid by rediililling it two or three times without addition. 

 The fseces remaining, after exprefling the wax, have been 



ufed 



