364 
ON KOEUM BUTTER. 
general service in wounds or sores, accompanied with inflammation, 
which it is desirable to abate." 
The specimens of kokum butter given to me by Dr. Frampton 
are in cylindrical masses of nearly three inches in diameter and 
between three and four inches long. 
Kokum butter is a solid, firm, very friable substance. Between 
the fingers it feels greasy, somewhat like spermaceti ; its color is 
pale yellow ; it has a faint not disagreeable odor. In appear- 
ance it has considerable resemblance to a solid fat which was 
brought from India some years ago under the name of Minia Batta, 
Stone Oil, and which was said to be extracted by the natives of 
Borneo from a tree which is very abundant there (Dr. R. D. Thom- 
son, British Annual and Epitome of the Progress of Science, p. 
360, Lond. 1837.) In odor, how T ever, it differs from the specimen of 
Minia Batta in my possession. 
The anonymous writer, in the Bengal Journal above quoted, 
has drawn attention to the difference between the melting and con- 
gealing points of kokum butter. He found that it softened at from 
90° to 100°, began to separate in a semi-fluid state at 106°, was 
partially opaque at 116°, but had attained perfect fluidity and 
transparency at 120°. Its congealing point, however, he found to 
be 90°. Mr. Redwood, who, at my request, kindly examined this 
subject, writes me that this butter "melts at about 98° F., remains 
fluid until cooled to 75°, and w 7 hen it then begins to solidify the 
temperature rises to 92°, at which it becomes solid." 
It is very slightly soluble in rectified spirit; more so in hot than 
in cold spirit. Mr. Redwood found that one ounce of rectified 
spirit dissolved only 1.7 grs. of the butter. In ether, however, it 
is readily soluble : one part of the butter dissolving almost im- 
mediately in about two parts of cold ether. 
Heated with oil of vitriol it yields a crimson red solution, with 
the evolution of sulphurous acid. — London Pharm. Journ. Aug. 
1851. 
