240 COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTS OF 



Comparing the percentage of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen 

 afforded by these experiments with that given by the supposed 

 composition of spermaceti (Cr^H^C^ ), we have in 100 parts : 



Found. 



Atoms. At. wght. Calcul. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 



Carbon 64 388.36 80.18 80.36 79.66 80.70 79.91 81.08 



Hydrogen.... 64 64.00 13.22 13.53 13.12 13.23 13.40 13.21 



Oxygen 4 32.00 6.60 6.11 7.22 6.07 6.69 5.71 



484.36 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 



Distillation of Spermaceti. — The products furnished by the 

 distillation of spermaceti were examined some time since by 

 Bussy and Lecanu ; but they appear to have fallen into the same 

 error with regard to them as was committed in the analysis 

 of sjDermaceti, for they state that oleic and margaric acids were 

 among the products. 



To make a correct examination of the products of the dis- 

 tillation of spermaceti it was necessary that the substance 

 should be in the greatest state of purity, as the presence of 

 the smallest quantity of tallow, sometimes used as a means of 

 adulteration, would serve to lead one into error. The manner 

 of purification here employed was to dissolve the spermaceti 

 in a mixture of two parts of alcohol of 0.820 and one part of 

 ether, allowing it to crystallize out, and washing the crystals 

 with boiling alcohol of 0.820. 



If some of the spermaceti purified as just mentioned be 

 placed in a small retort, and this last in mercury heated to 

 its boiling-point, the spermaceti will be found to distill over 

 slowly; and in fact this appears to be the lowest tem})erature 

 at which the distillation takes place— a temperature of about 

 600° Fah. The matter distilled, possesses no longer the prop- 

 erties of spermaceti ; its melting is at a temperature somewhat 

 lower, and it has a strong acid reaction upon litmus-paper, 

 as well as a peculiar smell, which though is not at all that 

 of acroleine* 



* If tallow be heated until it distills, it will be found to possess an odor 

 which irritates both the nostrils and eyes, and the substance to which this 

 odor belongs is called acroleine, and is a product of the decomposition of 

 the glycerine in the tallow. It has been found that all fatty bodies that 

 contain glycerine, when heated sufficiently high, give the same odor, and it 

 has therefore become the test for the glycerine in them. 



