A Manual of the Chemistry of the Carbon Compounds

174 THE CHEMISTRY OP
needles or laminre, melting at 69°*2, and solidifying to a crystalline
scaly mass.
The stearin-candles consist of a mixture of stearic and palmitic
acids.
Araehidk Acid C^H^O; occurs in the fat of the earth-nut (Arachis
hypogoea), and behcnic acid C2SH.4O4 in the oil from the fruits of
Moringa nux Behen. Hymie. and CLH^Og was found in the fat
from the glands of a diseased striated hyaena.
CHINESE WAX AND BEES-WAX.
Chinese wax, the product of an insect (Coccus wrtferus), is a
white crystalline substance resembling spermaceti, and consisting
almost entirely of ceryl cerotate n jJS 0. By saponifying it
with solid caustic potash, dissolving the soap iu hot water, and
adding barium chloride, a mixture of ceryl alcohol and barium
cerotate is precipitated, which may be separated by exhausting
the dry precipitate with hot alcohol, in which the barium salt is
CHI
insoluble. Geryl alcohol v » n g {• O is a white crystalline substance,
melting at 79°, and distilling at a high temperature with partial
decomposition into water and ccrotenc C«H64. When ceryl alcohol
is heated with caustic potash, it is oxidized to cerotic acid :—
0 + KOH = C * H