t 
CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  WAX  OF  MYRICA  CERIFERA.  337 
ON  THE  CHEMICAL  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  WAX  OF  THE 
MYRICA  CERIFERA. 
By  Gideon  E.  Moore,  B.  P. 
The  fruit  of  the  Myriad  cerifera  yields  a  wax  which  for  many 
years  has  constituted,  to  a  limited  extent,  an  article  of  commerce 
in  the  United  States  under  the  names  of  Myrtle-wax,  Candle- 
berry  wax  and  Bay-berry  Tallow.  It  occurs  abundantly  as  a 
white  incrustation  on  the  small  globular  nuts  of  the  plant.  To 
prepare  it  in  a  nearly  pure  state,  the  berries  are  enclosed  in  bags 
of  coarse  cloth  and  kept  immersed  in  boiling  water  until  the 
fused  wax  collects  on  the  surface  ;  it  is  then  poured  off  into  pans 
in  which  it  solidifies  on  cooling — in  this  form  and  without  fur- 
ther preparation  it  is  brought  into  commerce.  It  is  employed 
in  its  pure  state  as  a  polish  to  diminish  the  fr  ction  between  sur- 
faces of  wood  moving  in  mutual  contact,  and  in  admixture  with 
other  fatty  bodies  as  a  substitute  for  bees-wax  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  candles.  It  is  also  used  in  polishing  furniture  and  en- 
joys some  popular  repute  as  a  remedial  agent. 
We  are  indebted  for  the  first  published  account  of  this  sub- 
stance to  Alexandre,*  Surgeon,  correspondentofM.de  Mairan, 
who  mentions  a  wax  obtained  in  Louisiana  from  the  fruit  of  a 
tree  about  the  size  of  a  cherry  tree,  and  resembling  myrtle  in 
appearance,  which  he  states  to  have  been  employed  by  the  colo- 
nists in  the  manufacture  of  candles.  Mr.  Alexandre  likewise 
states  that  the  water  in  which  the  berries  have  been  boiled,  when 
evaporated  to  the  consistence  of  an  extract,  is  a  certain  cure  for 
the  most  violent  cases  of  dysentery. 
At  a  later  period  accounts  of  the  tree  or  shrub  were  given  by 
Marshal,  Lepage-Duprat,  and  by  Toscan,  Librarian  at  the  Mu- 
seum of  Natural  History  at  Paris.  The  latter  in  a  memoir  in 
his  work  entitled  U  Ami  de  la  Nature  gave  a  circumstantial  de- 
scription of  the  mode  of  collecting  the  wax  in  early  colonial 
t      times. f 
*  Hist,  de  1' Academie  Ann.  1722  and  1725,  pp.  11  and  39. 
f  «  Towards  the  end  of  autumn  when  the  berries  are  ripe,  a  man  leaves 
his  house,  together  with  his  family,  to  go  to  some  island  or  bank  near  the 
sea  shore  where  the  wax  trees  grow  in  abundance.  He  carries  with  him 
vessels  to  boil  the  berries,  and  a  hatchet  to  build  a  cottage  where  he  may 
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