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\'ni. An Investigation on the Chemical Nature of Wax. 
By Benjamin Collins Brodie, Esq. 
Communicated hy Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, Bart., F.R.S. 8§c. 
Received May 11, — Read November 23, 1848. 
III. On Myricin. 
I HAVE placed the investigation of the Chinese wax between that of the cerotic 
acid and of the residue of the bees’-wax which remains after that substance has been 
separated from it. By the saponification of this Chinese wax we procure, as I have 
shown, an acid identical with the cerotic acid from bees’-wax, and also the alcohol 
of this acid, so that the chemical history of these substances is closely connected. 
We have moreover in the Chinese wax to deal with a substance found in nature in a 
state of great purity, the products of the decomposition of which by alkalies and by 
heat can readily be prepared and examined. The knowledge of the relation of these 
products to one another throws great light upon the nature of myricin, which is not 
a pure substance, and the chemical relations of which are complex. 
I have stated that the first extracts of wax with alcohol give with acetate of lead 
an abundant precipitate in a hot alcoholic solution. This affords us a ready test of 
the presence of the cerotic acid. The wax may be long boiled with alcohol before 
the whole of the cerotic acid is removed. If however this process of boiling and 
decantation be continued, a time will come when the acetate of lead will cease to 
give any precipitate whatever in the hot alcoholic extract. I'he residue after this 
extraction I speak of as myricin. It is advisable to continue for two or three times 
the operation of boiling and decanting, even after the acetate gives no precipitate, 
the cerotate of lead not being entirely insoluble in the hot solution. 
The myricin thus prepared is a greenish substance of about the consistency of wax, 
uncrystalline, still possessing a slight smell of wax, and of a melting-point of 64° C. 
This substance is hardly acted on by dilute potash. It is however saponified by 
boiling with strong potash, and more readily by an alcoholic solution of the alkali. 
The saponification may also be effected by melting it with hydrate of potash, as in 
the case of the Chinese wax. The products are the same in whichever way the 
operation be conducted. 
If the soap from the saponifieation of the myricin be treated in the same manner 
as the similar soap from the Chinese wax*, it also will be found to contain two sub- 
stances, an acid and another substance which is contained in the ether with which 
the baryta salt is extracted. On attempting to purify these substances respectively 
* Philosophical Transactions, 1848, Part I. p. 161. 
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