40 ON THE TALI.OW TREE, ETC." 



The wax costs at Ningpo from 22 to 35 cents. (Is. to Is. 6d.) per pound. 

 The ai.nual product of this humble creature in China cannot be far 

 from 400,000 pounds, worth more than 100,000 Spanish dollars. 



Mr. Daniel Hanbury, with that exhaustive research and thorough 

 investigation which he bestows on all commercial subjects he ex- 

 amines and treats of, has furnished one of the most complete accounts 

 ot the insect white wax of China in a paper in the xii. vol. of the 

 ' Pharmaceutical Journal,' and to the Council of that Society we are 

 indebted for the use of the wood-cuts which illustrate this article. Mr. 

 Hanbury states the only considerable importations of Chinese wax into 

 England were in 1846 and 1847, when nearly three tons were imported 

 into London. Some of this wax sold in April 1847 fetched Is. 3d. per 

 pound, a piice "Loo low to be remunerative, and no further importation 

 we believe has taken place. 



The insect wax occurs in commerce in circular cakes of various 

 dimensions ; some of those imported into London had a diameter of 

 about 13 inches, a thickness of 3^ inches, and were perforated near the 

 centre with a hole five- eighths of an inch across. 



The broken surface generally exhibits the wax as a beautifully 

 sparkling, highly crystalline substance somewhat resembling spermaceti, 

 but much harder ; some cakes are internally much less crystalline and 

 sparkling than others. The wax is colourless and inodorous, or nearly 

 so, tasteless, brittle, and readily pulverizable at the temperature of 60 

 Fahr. The melting point of the commercial wax is 181.4, that of the 

 perfectly pure wax, 179.6. 



The mean of Mr. Brodie's analyses of the purified wax gave its com- 

 position thus : — 



Carbon .... 82.235 

 Hydrogen . . . 13.575 



Oxygen .... 4.190 



100.000 



In the ' Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society,' vol. v., p. 24, 

 will be found an interesting paper by Mr. A. S. Maskelyne, " on the 

 Oxidation of Chinese Wax." The late Professor Quekett states : — 



When a small portion of the wax is examined under the microscope, 

 it is found to consist of a series of short filaments or cylinders, some of 

 which are straight, but others more or less curved ; within each cylinder 

 is a tubular cavity extending throughout its whole length. In fig. 1 is a 

 representation of the cylinders as seen under a power of 500 diameters. 

 If the wax be heated on glass, it readily melts when the temperature 

 rises to 184 Fahr., and if examined in this state, the fluid mass is per- 

 fectly transparent and structureless. On cooling, however, it crystallises 

 precisely like spermaceti, as shown in fig. 2. One of the most perfect 



