A few experiments were now made with the alcoholic liquid 6^o. A concentrated alcoholic solution of acetate of magnesia added to this liquid, produced no precipitate, but micaceous crystalline scales fell on adding acetic acid, and upon adding more acetic acid, and heating, besides these crystals, an oil floated on the surface, which solidified on cooling, and which behaved like a fat, and gave the melting point of palmitic acid, viz.: 62° (solidifies gradually from 47° to 39°.) The crystals gave a small quantity of ash when burned on platina foil, and on being decomposed by hydrochloric acid, gave a fat with the melting point of stearic acid 72°-73°, and solidifying at 60°-55°. The mother liquid contained too little fat to experiment upon. To another portion of the liquid 6^o, alcoholic acetate of magnesia was added without addition of acetic acid, and the solution evaporated in a retort. The first crystals which appeared contained a fat which fused at 65°-68.5°, and solidified at 62°-58°. The solid crystalline fat No. 6 which was removed from the liquid 6^o, and which was the most highly purified result from the crystallization of this specimen of adipocire, was now examined more particularly; an alcoholic solution was made upon which to try the different experiments. Fifteen grammes of the fat required 300 of alcohol of 93 per cent. to keep it in solution; but before having added so much alcohol, on standing for a short time 0.656 grammes of pearly crystalline scales fell, which had a melting point of 62.5°, and solidified at 55.5°. The fat of the liquid after these crystals had fallen, when precipitated by water, melted at 58°-61°, and solidified at 55.5°: these crystals, recrystallized from alcohol, melted at 62.5°, and solidified at 58°-57°; these were dissolved a third time, in twenty times their weight of 93 per cent. alcohol, which deposited, on standing, less than a milligramme of tufted crystals of the form of palmitic acid, of which it had the melting point 62°: more alcohol was added to the solution, and it was divided by fractional precipitation with acetate of magnesia and the addition of a little ammonia with heat, into two portions, weighing 0.256 and 0.164 grammes, and they had the same melting point. This fat appears, therefore, to be palmitic acid, one of the acids into which Heintz divided margaric acid. The crystals deposited from alcohol do not at all resemble those of margaric acid, but under the microscope are lamellar. These two fats were converted respectively, by an excess of nitrate of silver, into silver salts, 0·24725 gave 0·074 Ag. = 29·93 per cent. and 0·14275 gave 0·04175 Ag. = 29·25 per cent., which corresponds to the percentage of silver in the palmitate of this base. C_{32} 192.00 By calculation. Mean of two Exper. H_{31} 31.00 O_{4} 32.00 Ag. 107.97 29.7 29.5 —————— 362.97