397 
on a Wax-like Substance from Madras. 
ties, shown by the experiments, except the precipitation of 
tartrite of pot-ash, and the peculiar smell above mentioned, 
are either those common to every species of acid, or are pos- 
sessed by several of them. For although this acid possesses 
several properties common to all acids, and some properties 
which belong to a few species only, there is not any one of the 
already known acids that has the smell, when heated, above 
mentioned ; that precipitates tartrite of pot-ash, but does not 
serve to compose acidulous tartrite of pot-ash ; that, besides 
having these properties, is vapour in the temperature of 200 
without decomposition, has not a sour but a bitterish taste, 
and forms a soluble compound with lime, which is decom- 
posable by pot-ash. 
The precipitation by oxalic acid, it is probable, was occa- 
sioned by a small quantity of lime which the undistilled liquid 
of white lac contains. 
The other phaenomena in the experiments I do not refer to, 
because they are produced by acids in general. 
Whether the above liquid from white lac be a new acid, or 
one of the acids already known, but disguised by mixture or 
union with other bodies, I leave to the decision of future ex- 
periments, and to the judgment of learned chemists. 
vi. Remarks and Conclusions from the preceding Observations 
and Experiments . 
1. White lac being unctuous when in a fluid state; having 
little or no smell and taste, unless heated ; being insoluble in 
water; being inflammable in oxygen gaz; and decompounded 
by fire alone, in close vessels, before evaporation, it seems to 
