Chemical researches on the nature of wax

It is known that bees’-wax is separable, by means of boiling water, into two portions: to the one, which is more soluble in alcohol than the other portion, the name ofCerin has been given: the residuary portion, which does not dissolve, has been termedMycicin . In this paper the author gives an account of his investigation of the properties of the former of these substances, namely Cerin. This substance has been represented by certain chemists in France, M. Lewy and M. Gerhardt, as being convertible by oxidation into the stearic acid, and as being a substance which stands with respect to that acid in the remarkable relation of an aldehyde. These views the author believes are incorrect; and he states that no pure chemical substance was procured by these chemists from cerin, and that the substance of which the greater part of the cerin consists is no aldehyde, but a hydrated acid, existing as such in bees’-wax.