and Observations on Lac. 
*95 
resin, which has exuded from vegetables simply punctured by 
insects.* * * § 
Geoffroy and Lemery obtained from lac, by distillation, 
some acid liquor, and a butyraceous substance. Moreover, 
Geoffroy observes, that when stick lac was thus treated, some 
ammonia was also obtained, but not when seed lac was em- 
ployed. 
He also mentions another sort of lac, brought from Mada- 
gascar, and called by the natives Lit-in-bitsic. This substance, 
he says, is scarcely to be distinguished from bees-wax, which it 
much resembles in colour and odour; and that it is produced by 
a grayish insect, much larger than the chermes lacca. It is evi- 
dent however, from Geoffroy’s description, that this substance 
is very different from the common lac ; and there can be little ' 
doubt, but that it is the same as that which was, a few years 
ago, examined by Dr. Pearson, under the name of white lac, 
a substance resembling the Pd-la of the Chinese.'f 
Geoffroy (as I have stated) considered lac as a sort of wax; 
and since his time it has scarcely, if at all, been subjected to 
chemical examination ; it is not therefore surprising, that the 
opinions of chemists concerning it have been various. Chaptal 
adopts the opinion of Geoffroy, and calls it a kind of wax ; £ 
but Gren§ and Fourcroy|| regard it as a true resin. 
• Mr. Kerr, observes, that as a red substance is obtained by incision from the 
plaso tree, very analogous to lac, it is probable, that the insects have little trouble in 
animalizing the sap of these trees, in the formation of their cells. Phil. Trans. 1781s 
?• 377 - 
f Phil. Trans. 1794, p. 383. 
jChaptal’s Elements; English edition. Vol. III. p. 387. 
§ Principles of modern Chemistry. Vol. I. p. 388. , 
|| Systeme des Cotinoissances cbimiques. Tome V. p. 624. 
