160 MR. BRODIE ON THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF A WAX FROxM CHINA. 
The Chinese wax, as it appears in commerce, is a substance nearly in a state of 
chemical purity. By alcohol small portions of a greasy matter may be separated 
from it, and on distillation it affords traces of acrolein, which is not a product of the 
distillation of the pure wax. The impurities however are unimportant. 
I have spoken of this substance as a wax ; and in truth, although to the eye it 
more nearly resembles spermaceti or stearine than ordinary bees’ -wax, the sub- 
stance, nevertheless, which, even in appearance, it more nearly resembles than any 
other, is the purified cerin, that is, that cerotic acid of which, mixed with certain 
other waxy matter, in a former paper, I have shown the bees’-vrax to consist. The 
accurate investigation of the chemical nature of the Chinese wax has brought to 
light certain curious chemical relations which exist between these bodies, and led to 
the discovery of the alcohol of cerotic acid. 
Cerotin. 
Chinese wax may be boiled for a long time either with dilute or with concentrated 
potash with hardly any signs of saponification. If, however, it be melted with the 
hydrate of potash, it is readily decomposed. This decomposition is best effected in 
an iron basin over a large gas flame or gentle fire. The mass, after the action, is 
soluble in boiling water, giving a milky solution. From this solution two substances 
may be procured ; an acid which may be combined with baryta by precipitation of 
the soap with chloride of barium ; and a wax-substance of another nature which is 
obtained by washing out the baryta salt with any suitable solvent, such as alcohol, 
ether, or naphtha. The soap, after precipitation by chloride of barium, becomes 
perfectly clear, and, to obtain the wax-substance which is not combined with the 
baryta, the baryta salt is first to be separated by filtration from the fluid, then dried 
and pulverized. It is convenient to effect, at first, a partial separation of the salt 
from the other matter by washing it out with a large quantity of boiling alcohol, and 
filtering the solution hot through linen. After this operation has been two or three 
times repeated, the substance, which passes through the filter, is to be redissolved in 
the same alcohol and the solutions filtered, in a similar manner, through paper, so as 
to separate the small portions of the baryta salt which unavoidably pass through the 
linen. The solution is much facilitated by the addition of a small quantity of naphtha 
to the alcohol. If the substance be purified by crystallization out of ether and abso- 
lute alcohol, its melting-point will be raised to 79° C. Previous to analysis the sub- 
stance is to be dissolved in absolute alcohol and ether, and the solution filtered. 
This is a necessary precaution, as the naphtha dissolves traces of the baryta salt. 
The substance was analysed. 
I. 0-258 grm. gave 0-7715 COg and 0-327 HO. 
II. The numbers have been mislaid. 
III. 0-2602 grm., another preparation, gave 0-7785 CO 2 and 0-334 HO, 
which give in 100 parts, — 
