PAT. STEARIN. ELA I N.
Carbon ....78.996 78.776 79.354 Hydrogen ..11.700 11.770 11.090 Oxygen .... 9.304 9.454 9.556 100.000 100.000 100.000 7. Whale oil, or train oil, (from whale blub ber,) sp. gr. .927, when cooled to 32°, deposits stearin; the filtered oil is then soluble in 0.82 of boiling alcohol. Aided by heat it dissolves arsenious acid, oxide of copper, and oxide of lead ; sulphuric and muriatie acids render the latter combination turbid, nitric acid tinges it dark brown with effervescence ; and it is coa gulated by potassa and snda. This oil is easily saponified when mixed with 0.6 its weight of hydrated potassa, and five parts of water ; the soap is brown, soluble in water, and when de composed by tartaric acid and the sour liquid distilled, it yields traces of phocenic acid, also glycerine, and oleic and margarie, but no stearic acid : these acids are accompanied by a greasy substance which has the odour of the oil. The stearic portion of train oil, when freed from adhering elain by washing with weak alcohol,concretes, after having been fused, at a temperature between and 80°; it is soluble in 1.8 parts of boiling alcohol, and is deposited in crystals as it cools, leaving a dark thick mother-liquor. When saponified, 100 parts yield 85 of margarie and oleic acids, 4 of a brown substance infusible at 212°, and per fectly soluble in boiling alcohol, 7 of bitterish glycerine, and traces of phoeenie acid.
8. Sperniaceti oil, the produce of the sper maceti whale, is lodged in the cartilaginous cells of a bony cavity on the upper part of the head ; as it cools, it deposits its peculiar stearie portion in the form of spermaceti; this sub stance is further separated by pressure in wool len bags from the oil, and is then washed with a weak solution of caustic potassa, melted in boiling water, and strained ; it is commonly east into oblong blocks, and if the interior liquid portion is drawn off when the exterior has concreted, the cavity exhibits upon its sur faces a beautiful crystalline texture. Sperma ceti, as it occurs in commerce, is in semi-trans parent brittle masses of a foliated fracture, and soapy to the touch ; it has a slight odour and a greasy taste, and when long kept becomes yel lowish and rancid. Its specific gravity is .943;
it fuses at about 114°. 100 parts of boiling alcohol, sp. gr..823, dissolve 3.5 spermaceti, and about 0.9 is deposited on cooling. Warm ether dissolves it so copiously, that the solution on conling; by the aid of heat, it dissolves in the fat and volatile oils, and is in part deposited as the solution cools. Alcohol always extracts a small portion of oil from the spermaceti of commerce; as the boiling alco holic solution cools, it deposits the purified spermaceti in white crystalline scales, and in this state, Chevreul terms it cetine. Cetiue does not fuse under 120°; it forms, on cooling, a lamellar, shining, inodorous, and insipid mass, which is volatile at high temperatures, and may be distilled without decomposition. It burns with a brilliant white flame, and dis solves in about four parts of absolute alcohol; it is very difficultly saponified ; digested for several days at a temperature between 120* and 190°, with its weight of caustic potassa and two parts of water, it yields margarate and oleate of potassa, and a peculiar fatty matter, which Chevreul calls cthal,* and which amounts to about 40 per ccnt. of the cetine used. To ob tain it in an insulated state the results of the saponification of cetine are decomposed by tartaric acid, which separates the margaric and oleic acid, together with the ethal; the fat acids are saturated with hydrate of baryta, and the resulting mixture well washed with water to separate all excess of base; it is then well dried, and digested in cold alcohol or ether, which takes up the ethal and leaves the barytic salts ; the former is then obtained by evapora tion of the solvent. Ethal is a solid, transpa rent, crystalline, fatty matter, without smell or taste; when melted alone it congeals at 120° into a crystalline cake; it is so volatile that it passes over in vapour when distilled with water. It burns like wax, and is soluble in all propor tions in pure alcohol at a temperature below 140°. It readily unites by fusion with fat and the fat acids, and when pure is not acted upon by a solution of caustic potassa; but if mixed with a little soap it then forms a flexible yel lowish compound, fusible at about 145°, and yielding an emulsive hydrate with boiling water.