W AX

WAX

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a fmall quantity of coal is left behind. Theoil and butter of wax, if again diftilled in agentle heat, become more and more fluid, andat the fame time acquire a greater folubility inlpirit of wine, and this oil never hardens bykeeping. _

Wax is folub.e abundantly in the fixed oils,and when melted with them an uniform mafs isproduced, whatever be the proportions of each,the confidence of which is intermediate betweenthe two. Oil and wax fometimes with fperma-ceti, form the bafis of molt of the cerates andointments ufed in pharmacy.

The eflential oils diflolve wax but fparing’y.

1 he action of the acids upon yellow waxhas been examined in a feries of experimentsby Beckman, d particularly with a view to theirbleaching power. The fame fubjed! has alfobeen followed by Sennebier, e who has addedfome remarks on the effedt of light and otherfuppofed decolouring agents.

1 he operation of light was thus fhewn : fomeyellow wax was melted and thinly fpread on aplate of glafs; a fimilar plate was laid upon itwhen hot, and the edges of the plates wereclofed with fealing wax. The bees-wax there-fore was deprived of the accefs of air, and itwas placed in the fun, and expofed to its lightfor four or five hours daily. Another quantityof wax was inclofed between plates in a fimilarmanner, but kept in the dark. In two daysthe wax kept in the fun began to bleach, andin a month’s time the whole, where it did notexceed two lines of an inch) in thicknefs,was quite white, whilft no change whatevertook place in that which was kept in darknefs.

If thin fhavings of wax are immerfed in eitherof the three mineral acids, £ a little dilute, in afew hours the yellow colour difappears, and thewax is rendered partly white, partly pellucid.No further change takes place, nor is the colourof the acid at ail altered (unlefs heat be applied)for many weeks. The bits of wax are howevermuch hardened by remaining in the acid, fo asto rattle when fliaken againft the fides of theglafs, and by briik agitation they may be brokendown into very minute white fiocculi. Thischange takes place much the moft rapidly inthe nitric acid, or in the nitro-muriatic, and itis compleatly eiTedded in an hour or two. Italfo happens when wax is melted in nitric acid,though lefs rapidly. This circumftance led theauthor of thefe experiments to exped! that fome-thiug might be done in the large way in bleach-

ing wax by nitric acid, but this hope provedfallacious, for on removing the wax from theacid and melting it in water, (which is necefiaryto extract the acid) the wax refumes a yellowcolour, and the water alfo becomes of a highbrown yellow. By repeatedly mfelting the waxin water (without any additional acid) it be-comes more and more yellow, and at the -fametime grows harder and much more fufible thanat firlt.

Neither is the vapour of burning fulphur,which fo fpeedily bleaches filk and many otherfubitances, more fuccefsful in depriving waxof its colour.

The effect of cauftic alkali upon wax hasbeen already mentioned. When yellow waxhas long been fwimming in a folution of carbo-nat of potafh, it becomes grey, and this colouris entirely changed to a milk-white by fubfe-quent digeftion in nitric acid, and the wax re-fumes its whitenefs.

Profeffor Beckman then tried the whiteningeffed! of fuller’s earth, or fome fimilar fubftance,being led to ufe it from the known power whichit has in whitening and purifying tartar. Someyellow wax was melted, and a quantity ofthis earth finely powdered was fprinkled in.The wax was then melted out, and being fufedin water it appeared grey, like wax half-bleachedin the common way, which the author fuppofeswould fave much time in the whole procefs.

A few words may be added as to the originof wax. It is ufually fuppofed that the wax isthe pollen of flowers, which the bees vifiblycolled! on their thighs, and afterwards elaboratein fome unknown way. The great differencebetween wax and this matter which .the beescolled!, has however been -long remarked.When examined by the microfcope this littlemafs of pollen is obvioully compofed of a num-ber of hard grains comprefl'ed together, and ifit is laid on a hot plate, it does not melt as waxwould do, but fmokes, dries, and is reduced toa coal, and if kindled it burns without melting.

Some late very curious experiments of Huber, sone of the mol! celebrated apiarifts in Europe ,has further fhewn that the pollen has no fliarewhatever in the formation of wax, but that thislatter fubftance is produced indilcriminatelyfrom honey, fugar, or any other faccharine mat-ter which ferves as food for the bees. Thedetails of thefe experiments hardly belong tochemical fubjed!s; it is fufficient to mentionthat they were performed by confining feparate

4 Nov Comment, Soc. Reg. Gotting. Vol. v. for 1774- e Journ. de Phyf. Tom. xxxviii, for 1791 .'XScrkman. » journ. de Phyf. f 0 m. iviii.