596 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING, 
earthy matters, meal, or other insoluble impurities, 
added, not infrequently, to foreign samples, to increase 
weight. Benzine, as a wax solvent, is the best material 
for removing the latter from any fabric which may 
by accident have been sullied by it. Fresh wax 
melts at about 144°, but the melting-point rises 2 ^ 
or so by a few months’ keeping. The specific gravity 
of wax is nearly equal to that of water, and ranges 
between *960 and ’965, water being I'ooo. When adul- 
terated with hard fats, its specific gravity is reduced, and 
on this fact Mr. Hehner has suggested an exceedingly 
simple test. Take a piece of undoubted pure beeswax, 
and cautiously mix alcohol (methylated spirit) with water 
until the wax just sinks ; a piece of wax so adulterated 
would, in the same test fluid, rise to the surface. The 
test must be applied, however, with great care, as 
any air-bubbles in or on the piece to be. tried might 
lead to its being condemned unjustly. 
Bees varnish their combs with propolis on the 
edges of the cells, where they often apply it quite 
thickly, while they add a thinner coat on the cell 
walls ; but it does not appear that this varnishing 
wholly causes the colour the wax possesses in bulk. 
The wax scales, as secreted (page 156, Vol. I.), 
are daintily white, but the combs may be, under 
special conditions, which are little understood, yellow 
at the very bases of the cells from the beginning. 
Wax can be bleached by exposing it to the action 
of the ozone in dew ; but different specimens of wax 
behave differently under identical treatment. The 
usual plan is to run it out into films by dropping it 
upon revolving wooden cylinders half immersed in 
