592  Examination  of  Beeswax 
Wax  number  one  is  placed  at  the  head  as  a  standard  because  it  is 
of  known  purity  and  is  not  to  be  included  in  the  sixteen  samples. 
Neither  number  three  nor  number  nine  contained  any  detectable 
adulterant  yet  the  ether  number  is  low.  Several  trials  were  made, 
in  both  cases,  to  obtain  a  higher  ether  number  but  without  success. 
Each  sample  was  boiled  for  two  hours  so  that  saponification  ought 
to  have  been  complete,  yet  the  difficulty  might  lie  here,  for  R. 
Benedikt  and  K.  Mangold  say1  that  this  method  is  attended  with 
the  disadvantage  of  saponifying  some  kinds  of  wax  with  difficulty. 
These  investigators  base  their  results  on  what  they  call  "  aufge- 
schlossenes  Wachs." 
In  view  of  the  facts  that  some  wax  saponifies  with  difficulty, 
that  no  adulterant  was  found  and  the  remaining  data  were  approxi- 
mately normal,  these  waxes  claim  a  position  among  the  unadul- 
terated. 
Samples  number  two  and  twelve  contain  stearic  acid  or  an  equiva- 
lent, yet  the  specific  gravity  and  the  melting  point  conform  in  each 
case  as  nearly  to  those  of  pure  wax  as  could  be  required.  How  the 
manufacturer  succeeded  in  doing  this  is  a  question  for  us  to  solve. 
Heintz2  has  shown  that  by  mixing  stearic  and  palmitic  acids  in 
different  proportions  a  melting  point  varying  from  69-2°  C.  to  55-1° 
C.  can  be  secured.  Was  it  a  mixture  of  this  kind?  The  writer 
was  unable  to  determine. 
The  use  of  stearic  acid,  as  an  adulterant  for  beeswax,  must  be  of 
comparatively  recent  date  for  Hassal,  in  his  admirable  work,  who 
generally  enumerates  every  conceivable  adulterant,  does  not  allude 
to  it,  and  Allen,  in  his  Commercial  Organic  Analysis,  2,  213,  says  it 
is  "  Less  frequently  employed  than  some  of  the  other  adulterants." 
The  results  above  show,  and  other  recent  "investigations  corrobo- 
rate it,  that  stearic  acid  is  employed  almost  as  extensively  as  any 
other  adulterant  for  this  purpose. 
Rosin  was  found  only  in  the  sample  designated  "  Manufacturing 
Wax." 
Indications  point  to  the  presence  of  Japan  wax  in  number  seven- 
teen, but  nothing  definite  can  be  ascertained,  owing  to  the  present 
inefficient  methods  at  our  disposal. 
1  1891,  Chem.  Ztg.,  15,  474. 
2  Ann.  der  Physick,  92,  588  ;  DragendorfPs  Plant  Analysis,  1884,  Eng.  Ed., 
p.  15. 
/  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\        Dec.  1893. 
