WAVRE, a t. in the province of South Brabant, Belgium, 15 m. s.e. of Brussels, has a pop. of 5,900, who are mostly engaged in the manufacture of hats, leather, and cotton yarn. Wavre is better known as the scene of a desperate and protracted conflict between the French and PruSsians, on June 18-19, 1815. The former, under Grouchy, Gerard, and Vandamme, advanced against the Prussians at the same time as Napoleon directed the troops under his immediate orders against Wellington at Waterloo (q.v.), and being much superior in number (32,000 to 15,200), drove the Prussians, under Thielman, into Wavre, where they defended themselves with desperate firmness,, repulsing 13 dif ferent assaults in the course of the 18th. On the following morning, Thieiman, who had heard of the victory at Waterloo, attacked Grouchy, but was repulsed with vigor, though the urgent orders of Napoleon forced the latter to retreat to Laon, instead of following up his success.
WAX. Under this term, chemists include various matters of a well-known (so-called array) appearance, derived both from the animal and the vegetable kingdoms. While in their ictieral relations they approximate to the fats, they differ materially from the latter in their chemical composition; those of them which have been carefully examined, being found to consist partly of mixtures of alcohols and compound ethers, and partly of free fatty acids. Their general properties may be thus laid down: They are solid-or semi solid matters; are easily broken when cold, but at a moderate warmth are soft and pli able. and fuse at a temperature below 212°. They have a peculiar glistening appearance, are lighter than water, are insoluble in that fluid and in cold alcohol, but dissolve read ily in ether; they are combustible, and burn with an illuminating flame, are non-volatile, and when heated in a free atmosphere, undergo decomposition, In this category are included spermaceti (which has been already considered), bees-wax, Chinese wax, and other less known kinds, as palm or vegetable wax (obtained from the bark of ceroxyknt andicola, by the action of hot water and pressure), Carnahuba wax (au exudation from the leaves of a Brazilian palm), sugar-cane wax, etc.
Bees-wax is an animal secretion formed by the bees from sugar, and constitutes the material of which the cells of the honey-comb are composed. It is obtained by express iug the honey, and fusing the residue in boiling-water. In this state it is of a yellow color (cera 'lava). It may be bleached, so as to forum white. wax (arcs alba), by being exposed in thin slices to the action of solar light, or by the action of nitric acid. (Chlo rine readily destroys the color, but renders the wax unfit for candle-making, as a por tion of Vie hydrogen of the wax is replaced by chlorine, and the candles, when burning, evolve . •:;:ating vapors of hydrochloric acid gas.) From the researches of sir B. Brodie (Phil. Trans., 1848-49), it appears that wax consists of three different substances, myri (In, win, and cerokin, which are separable from one another by means of alcohol. jityricia, which is insoluble in boiling alcohol, constitutes more than two-thirds of the bulk of ordinary wax aria, or cerotic acid, which dissolves in boiling alcohol, but sep arates on cooling, varies in quantity in different specimens. In one sample of genuine bees-wax, Brodie found that it constituted 22 per cent, and it was always present in European sainples, while in Ceylon wax it was entirely absent. This curious variation in the nature of an animal secretion, under different conditions of life, resembles the variations sometimes noticed in the acids of butter, in which the butyric and caproic acids of one season are replaced in another by vaccinic acid, differing from the former acids in the amount of oxygen alone. Ce•olczn, the substance soluble iu cold alcohol, is a greasy body, constituting 4 or 5 per cent of ordinary wax. Without entering into chemical details, we may observe that bees-wax yields the following derivatives: Cero tic acid or eeriti, HO,C LI cerylic alcohol or eerolin, melissylic -54-68 alcohol or melissin, II0,040110,0; melissie acid, 110,C6J13903; palmitic acid, 110.C32 myricin, C92119204; and melene, CsolIco.