vegetable Wax from, Brazil . 2,65 
grav. above ,840°, becomes abundantly soluble, by the addition 
of one part of camphor, to eight parts of the alcohol. 
Boiling alcohol, spec. grav. ,840, takes up a considerable 
portion of castor oil and of linseed oil ; it also dissolves a small 
quantity of the oils of almonds and of olives ; but they are co- 
piously deposited during the cooling of the alcohol, and only 
a small portion retained in permanent solution. 
When water is added to any of these solutions of the fixed 
oils in ether, and in alcohol, a milky mixture is formed, and 
the oil gradually separates upon the surface, without having 
undergone any apparent alteration. 
6. One hundred grains of the wax were boiled for half an 
hour in a solution of caustic potash, spec. grav. 1090. The 
solution acquired a pale rose colour, but appeared to exert no 
further action on the wax, which after having been washed 
with warm w r ater, retained its fusibility and other properties. 
No combination therefore, similar to a soap, was produced, 
nor was any precipitate occasioned by the addition of acids to 
the rose coloured alkaline solution. 
7. The effects produced by boiling the wax in solutions of 
pure soda, and of the subcarbonates of soda and of potash, 
were analogous to those of the caustic potash. 
8. Solutions of pure and of carbonated ammonia exert 
scarcely any action on the wax. 
9. When the wax is boiled in nitric acid, spec. grav. 1,45. 
there is some escape of nitrous gas, and the colour of the wax 
is gradually changed to a deep yellow. 
When the wax is removed from the acid, and washed with 
hot water, it is found to have become more brittle and hard, 
but it still retains much of its peculiar odour. 
In this state it remains insoluble in the alkalies, but they 
mdcccxi. M m 
