3 S 6 Dr . Pearson's Observations and Experiments 
watery liquid oozes out, which has a slight salt taste ; and we 
are told that the recently gathered lac is replete with juice. 
Although the roundish pieces of this substance yield to 
pressure between the fingers, they may be broken, ana then 
appear to be perfectly white within, and of an uniform smooth 
texture. White lac has no smell, unless it be pressed or rub- 
bed till it is soft, and then it emits a peculiar odour. 
The lac which had been strained through muslin was of a 
brbwn colour throughout its whole substance; was brittle, 
hard, and had a bitterish taste, without any saltness, for its 
watery liquid had been separated by melting. 
The pieces of lac gathered from the tree are as light, or 
lighter than bees wax ; but after being melted and purified 
by straining, it sinks in water, and therefore is specifically 
heavier than bees wax generally is. 
White lac melts in water of the temperature of 145 ° of 
Fahrenheit's thermometer. In boiling water it readily 
melted, and the black exuvice were thus separated from the 
lac. 
Two thousand grains of white lac were exposed in such a de- 
gree of caloric* as was just sufficient to melt them ; as they 
grew soft and fluid, a pretty large quantity of reddish watery 
fluid, namely 550 grains, which emitted the smell of newly 
baked bread, oozed out. This liquid was poured off for exami- 
nation, and the lac was strained through fine cloth repeatedly, 
till it left no exuviae or other extraneous matter on the filter. 
The quantity of purified lac thus obtained was 1220 grains. 
• The names of the new system of chemistry are employed in this paper, for 
which it is presumed a particular explanation is unnecessary* as its nomenclature is 
now very generally used. 
