EXTRACTS.—NATURAL HISTORY. 
717 
Experiments on Bees’ Wax and Vegetable Wax. —M. Oppermann 
states, that the vegetable wax of the East Indies is of a yellowish white colour, 
transparent at the edges, more brittle and greasy to the touch, but less compact 
than bees’ wax. Its taste is rancid when it has been masticated some time : its 
sp. gr. 0. 97; at 124 deg. Fahr. it melts, remains fluid at 112 deg. and solidifies 
at 109 deg. It is soluble both in spirit and in aether; the former solution soli¬ 
difies in cooling, while the latter merely deposits light flocks Japan wax, yielded 
by analysis, 
Carbon. 70,9683 
Hydrogen. 12,0728 
Oxygen. 16,9589 
100,0000 
Brazilian Wax very closely resembles the foregoing: their colour, consistence, 
and odour almost the same; the Brazilian is however distinguished by the yel- 
owish brown pellicle with which it is covered : it fuses at 120 deg. and solidifies 
lat 113 deg. The spirituous and aetherial solutions resemble those of the Japan 
wax. Brazilian wax gave by analysis, 
Carbon. 72,8788 
Hydrogen. 12,0297 
Oxygen. 15,0915 
100,0000 
Bleached and purified bees’ wax is harder than the foregoing: but the vege¬ 
table wax, dissolved in four parts of oil, gives a compound which is three times 
firmer than that obtained with the same quantities of bees’ wax and oil; but the 
latter gives greater consistency to fat than the former. 
Alcohol, even when hot, dissolves bees’ wax with difficulty; the solution soli¬ 
difies by cooling, and yields a white granular transparent mass. ./Ether when 
boiling forms a clear solution of bees’ wax, which becomes turbid by spontane¬ 
ous evaporation; it afterwards thickens, and the wax when separated, appears to 
have suffered no change. Caustic soda at first merely softens bees’ wax, but af¬ 
terwards converts it into soap, though not so readily as the vegetable wax. By 
analysis, bees’ wax yielded. 
Carbon... 31,2910 
Hydrogen. 14,0726 
Oxygen. 54,6364 
100,0000 
Ann. de Ch. et de Phys. 
The Esquimaux Lake, North America. —This lake is said to extend from 
north to south more than one hundred and fifty miles, and about the same from 
east to west. It is reported to be full of islands, to be every where brackish, 
and to receive two large rivers besides the eastern branch of the Mackenzie. It 
may be plausibly conjectured, that the alluvial materials brought down by the 
Mackenzie, and other rivers have gradually formed a barrier of islands and 
shoals, which by preventing the free access of the tide, enables the fresh water to 
maintain the predominance behind it. The action of the waves of the sea has a 
tendency the height of the barrier, while the currents of the rivers and the ebb 
tide preserve the depth of the lake. A great formation of wood coal will, no 
doubt, be ultimately formed by the immense quantities of drift timber deposited 
on the borders of this lake.—J. Rennie. — Mag. Nat. Hist. 
