WAX. This is a common vegetable product forming the varnish which coats the leaves of certain plants and trees. It is also found upon some berries, as of the ifyrica cerifera ; and it is an ingre dient of the_pollen of flowers. It was long supposed that bees merely collected the wax thus ready formed in plants ; but limber found that though excluded from all food except sugar, they still formed wax; and accordingly it has been found that the elementary composition of bees' wax and vegetable wax is slightly different. Bees' wax is prepared by draining and washing the honeycomb, which is then melted in boiling water, strained, and cast into cakes. English and foreign wax are found in the market; the latter being chiefly imported from the Baltic, the Levant, and the coast of Barbary. Fresh wax has a peculiar honey-like odor : its specific gravity is -96. At about 150° it fuses, and at a high temperature volatilizes, and burns with a bright white flame. it is bleach ed by being exposed in thin slices or ribbons to light, air, and moisture, or more rapidly by the action of chlorine ; but in the latter case it does not answer for the manufacture of candles, which is one of its principal applications. Wax candles are made by suspending the wicks upon a hoop over the caldron of i melted wax, which is successively pour ed over them from a ladle till they have acquired the proper size, so that the can dle consists of a series of layers of wax ; the upper end is then shaped, and the lower cut off. Attempts have been made
to cast wax candles in moulds, but when thus made they burn irregularly. Bleach ed or white wax is generally adulterated with more or less spermaceti, and sold at different prices accordingly ; in this case it has not the peculiar lustre of pure wax, and is softer and more fusible. It is also largely adulterated with stearine or stearic acid, which is detected by the odor or fat of tallow which it evolves when highly heated, and by its crumbly texture ; it may also be separated to a certain extent by ether or alcohol. Wax is insoluble in water, and scarcely acted upon by the acids, so that it forms a good lute or cement : boiling alcohol and ether act partially upon it, and deposit the portion which they had dissolved, on cooling. Some varieties of vegetable wax appear to contain two distinct prin ciples, which Dr. John has termed ceria and mricin ; the former soluble, and the latter insoluble, in alcolt. Heated with the fixed alkalies, wax forms a difficultly soluble soap.