MR. BRODIE ON MYRICIN. 
101 
giving in 100 parts, — 
Carbon .... 85-31 
Hydrogen . . . 14*44 
99-75 
85-71 
14-28 
99-99 
The difference between the hydrogen calculated and found is only 0*16 per cent., 
which is as near to theory as such analyses can be expected to come. Cerotin melts 
at 81° C. The hydrocarbon I have called ceroten melts at 57° to 58°. Melissin melts 
at 85°. The wax hydrocarbon at 62° C., showing a precisely analogous difference in 
their melting-points. Owing to the numerous operations which are necessary before 
this hydrocarbon can be procured in a pure state, I have been unable to make further 
experiments with the pure substance. The analyses, however, the analogy of this 
other substance and the mode of its formation, can leave no doubt but that it is the 
hydrocarbon of the wax-alcohol Cgo Hgo, to which may be given the name of melen. 
The formula C„ demands — 
m. m 
C . 
m 
n 
The Nature of Myricin. 
The analogy of the products of the decomposition of myricin by alkalies and by heat, 
to those of the Chinese wax and of spermaceti under similar circumstances, would 
lead us to suspect that a similar relation exists between the substances to which these 
products are due. If, however, we take the numbers which have been obtained by 
analysis for this body, those for example of Ettling*, or those of Lewy'|', and 
attempt from these to reckon out a formula which shall give a rational account of 
these decompositions, we find a considerable deficiency of carbon. I give one 
of Lewy’s analyses, with which other analyses of himself and other chemists are 
sufficiently accordant;!:. 
Carbon 80*28 
Hydrogen .... 13*34 
Oxygen 6*38 
100-00 
The formula C 92 H 92 O 4 , which would account in a simple manner for the decom- 
positions, — 
^32 ^31 ^3 
^60 ^61 O 
C32 ^32 ^4 
^60 Hgo 
^92 H92 O4 
C92 H92 o 
4 
* Liebig’s Annalen, ii. 267. 
f Annales de Chimie, xiii. 443. 
t Ibid. 
