Mil. BRODIE ON MYRICIN. 
105 
These analyses perfectly agree with the formiilse for the acid, C49 H49 O4. 
Calculated. 
78-4 
13-0 
8-6 
100-0 
Calculated. 
60-9 
9-9 
6-8 
22-4 
100-0 
If we compare the numbers of this acid with those of the substance from the 
oxidation of which it was derived, we shall see that it is impossible to account for 
the changes in the same simple manner as in other cases of such transformation. It 
would not be difficult to reckon out a formula that without great violence should 
account for it, but it is hardly worth while to do so, since notwithstanding the per- 
fect agreement of the calculated and theoretical numbers, it is impossible to assert 
with certainty that either it or the body from which it is derived are pure chemical 
substances. There is too great a difficulty in the perfect separation of the melissin 
to lead us to hope that it can absolutely be removed by the method I have given. 
I failed in attempting to procure in larger quantities this substance of 72°. The 
melting-point was very constant at but on oxidizing a considerable quantity of 
this substance with lime and potash, acids were procured, which by crystallization 
were separable in the same manner as the substance from which they were derived, 
and the purification and perfect separation of which presented the same difficulties. 
I obtained in this way an acid having nearly the melting-point of 85°, the melting- 
point of melissic acid, and also an acid with a lower melting-point than 77°, but of 
which the melting-point was not so absolutely constant as to induce me to investigate 
it further. I give however these analyses, since they unquestionably prove the exist- 
ence of some other body in addition to the melissin, in the products of the saponifi- 
cation of wax, which by oxidation is capable of passing into an acid belonging to the 
series O4. Since it is only a pure body or a mixture of acids of this series 
which could give rise to the results I have given, and from the great difficulty of 
separation, the acid in all probability contains a very large number of equivalents of 
carbon, whether it have precisely the formula I have above given or not. 
Mixed with the palmitic acid of 62°, is found another acid of a much lower melt- 
ing-point, and which presents similar difficulties of separation from the palmitic acid 
to those of the substance mixed with the melissin from the melissin itself. This acid 
is very soluble in alcohol, unctuous to the touch, and of a very low melting-point. 
I do not, however, mean to assert that the other wax-alcohol exists in the wax in 
MDCCCXLIX. p 
