VIII. An investigation on the chemical nature of wax

Abstract

I Have placed the investigation of the Chinese wax between that of the cerotic acid and of the residue of the bees’-wax which remains after that substance has been separated from it. By the saponification of this Chinese wax we procure, as I have shown, an acid identical with the cerotic acid from bees’-wax, and also the alcohol of this acid, so that the chemical history of these substances is closely connected. We have moreover in the Chinese wax to deal with a substance found in nature in a state of great purity, the products of the decomposition of which by alkalies and by heat can readily be prepared and examined. The knowledge of the relation of these products to one another throws great light upon the nature of myricin, which is not a pure substance, and the chemical relations of which are complex. I have stated that the first extracts of wax with alcohol give with acetate of lead an abundant precipitate in a hot alcoholic solution. This affords us a ready test of the presence of the cerotic acid. The wax may be long boiled with alcohol before the whole of the cerotic acid is removed. If however this process of boiling and decantation be continued, a time will come when the acetate of lead will cease to give any precipitate whatever in the hot alcoholic extract. The residue after this extraction I speak of as myricin. It is advisable to continue for two or three times the operation of boiling and decanting, even after the acetate gives no precipitate, the cerotate of lead not being entirely insoluble in the hot solution.