214 STEARINE AND STEARIC ACID IN WAX. 
ART. LXL— EXPERIMENTS ON THE DETECTION AND QUAN- 
TITATIVE DETERMINATION OF STEARINE AND STEARIC 
ACID IN WAX. 
By E. Geith. 
Carbonate of soda affords a ready method of detecting 
the adulteration of wax by stearic acid. When pure white 
or yellow wax is boiled in a porcelain dish with an equal 
weight of carbonate of soda and 6 parts of water, constantly 
stirring until a layer of carbonate of soda begins to form- at 
the bottom of the dish, a tolerable quantity of the wax itself 
is saponified. If the mass, while still hot, is treated with 
6 times the weight of the wax of alcohol of G.SO spec, graw 
and the whole then rubbed to a powder, with a gradual ad- 
dition of from 16 to IS parts of alcohol of 0.50 spec, grav., 
until the insoluble portion remains suspended in the liquid, 
a considerable precipitate is produced in the filtered solution 
by an acid. When, therefore, wax is tested with carbonate 
of soda for stearic acid, this substance saponifiable by soda 
must be previously extracted, which may be done with alco- 
hol. In examining wax, it should first be tested for stearic 
acid ; about 2 drms. of the sample to be examined are 
digested for some time in a flask with 1 oz. of lime-water 
and i oz. of distilled water, when the liquid, if stearic acid 
be present, loses its alkaline reaction. Regnault has, it is 
true, asserted that a precipitate of stearate of lime is deposited 
from the liquid, but the author was never able to obtain any 
such precipitate ; on the contrary, even turbid lime-water 
became clear on digestion with the wax. When the ab- 
sence of stearic acid has been thus ascertained, 1 drm. of 
the sample of wax is boiled for a few minutes in a flask 
with 2 oz. of alcohol of 0.80 spec, grav., and the whole 
poured into 1 oz. of alcohol of the same strength; after a 
few hours the finely-divided wax is collected on a filter 
and washed with 2 ounces of the same alcohol. The wax 
