MR. BRODIE ON THE CHEMICAL NATURE OF A WAX FROM CHINA. 161 
I. 
II. 
III. 
Carbon . . 
81-55 
81-76 
81-59 
Hydrogen . 
14-08 
14-25 
14-26 
Oxygen . . 
4-37 
3-99 
4-15 
100-00 
100-00 
100-00 
These numbers give the formula C 54 Hgg O 2 . 
Atomic weight. 
Calculated in 100 parts. 
^4* 
. . 324 
81-81 
H 56 
. . 56 
14-14 
O 2 . 
. . 16 
4-05 
396 
100-00 
This is the formula of an alcohol. Other experiments decided that this was in 
truth the class of bodies to which this substance belonged, and led me to adopt the 
particular formula for it which I have given. This alcohol I call cerotin. If this 
substance be heated with lime and potash according to the method of Dumas, 
hydrogen gas is given off, and if the experiment be conducted with care there will 
hardly be traces of any other volatile product. In the tube is found an acid. The 
experiment requires considerable heat, and I have found that it is best made in a 
long combustion-tube, suspended by means of two corks in a large tube of porcelain, 
which forms an air-bath. The apparatus is heated by charcoal in a combustion- 
trough. In this manner the heat can be regulated with the greatest precision. The 
acid having been purified in the usual manner, which it is unnecessary again to refer 
to, is a substance highly crystalline in its texture and perfectly resembling in its 
sensible properties the cerotic acid from bees’-wax, with which acid analysis shows 
it to be identical. The melting-point of this preparation was about a degree higher 
than that of the cerotic acid from wax, namely 81° C. 
0'259 grm. gave 0'754 CO 2 and 0 309 HO, 
which correspond in 100 parts to 
Carbon . 
. . . 79-39 
Hydrogen 
. . . 13-28 
Oxygen . 
... 7-33 
100-00 
This agrees with the formula C 54 H 54 
O 4 . 
Calculated in 100 parts. 
^-54 • 
. . 79-02 
H 54 
. . 13-17 
O 4 . 
. . 7-81 
100-00 
I prepared also the silver salt of this acid. The method used for its preparation 
was the same as that used in the case of the cerotic acid from bees’-wax. 
MDCCCXLVIII. 
Y 
