PURITY  OF  YELLOW  BEESWAX. 
539 
presence  a  matter  of  indifference.  Most  of  the  samples  were 
bought  in  the  lower  parts  of  the  town,  and  the  results  show  that 
in  Liverpool  there  is  not  much  cause  to  complain.  I  have  to 
thank  Mr.  Thomas  Williams  for  valuable  assistance  in  working 
out  the  above  results. 
The  Chairman  said  that  the  fatty  material  referred  to  by 
Mr.  Davies  might  probably  be  stearin,  which  was  used  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Bristol  for  adulterating  wax  sometimes  to  the 
extent  of  fifteen  or  twenty  per  cent.  He  had  found  as  the  re- 
sult of  experience  that  if  there  was  a  crack  about  an  inch  from 
the  upper  edge  of  the  cake,  together  with  a  greasy  appearance, 
these  characters  indicate  the  presence  of  stearine. 
Professor  Attfield  remarked  that  this  was  an  interesting 
practical  paper,  and  that  the  results  were  in  favor  of  his  sugges- 
tion that  the  melting-point  assigned  to  beeswax  in  the  Pharma- 
copoeia should  be  raised  ten  degrees  above  the  number  now  given. 
Some  discussion  took  place  as  to  the  mode  of  determining  the 
melting-  or  rather  solidifying-point  of  wax  and  similar  materials. 
Mr.  Groves  (Weymouth)  pointed  out  that  a  difference  of  ten 
degrees  in  the  result  of  experiment  might  be  due  to  the  method 
adopted.  He  recommended  dipping  a  thermometer  bulb  in  the 
melted  wax,  and  after  the  film  of  wax  had  solidified  upon  the 
bulb,  suspending  the  thermometer  in  water,  which  was  gradually 
heated  until  the  film  of  wax  became  transparent  and  liquid  ;  then 
reading  off  the  temperature  at  which  this  took  place  as  the  melt- 
ing-point. 
It  was  also  mentioned  that  the  presence  of  Japan  wax  would 
render  the  melting-point  of  beeswax  low,  but  no  known  means 
seemed  to  be  available  for  detecting  this  admixture,  except  the 
occurrence  of  that  kind  of  bloom  on  the  surface  of  the  wax  so 
adulterated,  which  is  characteristic  of  Japan  wax  itself,  as  stated 
by  Mr.  Parkinson,  Ph.D.,  Bradford. 
Mr.  Davies  said  that  he  had  found  that  pure  wax,  when  melt- 
ing, passes  suddenly  from  the  opaque  to  the  transparent  condi- 
tion, but  that  when  parafiin  was  present  the  transition  was 
gradual. 
Mr.  Brady  (Newcastle)  recommended  that  as  this  was  a  sub- 
