A melting point is the temperature at which a solid substance assumes the liquid condition. If the solid is a pure substance in the crystalline condition the melting point is sharp and well defined for any given pressure. With increased pressure the melting point is lowered or raised, depending on whether the substance contracts or expands in melting. The lowering or raising of the melting point with pressure is very slight and ordinarily is not taken into consideration. Melting-point determinations are commonly carried out under ordinary atmospheric pressures without correction. The general effect of soluble impurities is to lower the melting point, and this holds true whether the impurity has a higher or lower melting point than the pure substance (solvent). Thus if a small amount of stearic acid be added to liquid palmitic acid and the solution frozen, the melting point of this solid will be lower than that of palmitic acid. Likewise the melting point of stearic acid is lowered by the addition of a small amount of palmitic acid. A eutectic mixture results when two components solidify simultaneously at a definite temperature. Such a mixture has a constant melting point and because of this and also because both solid and liquid phases have the same composition, eutectic mixtures were formerly looked upon as compounds. The phenomenon of double melting points has been observed in the case of a number of glycerides. Such a glyceride when placed in the usual capillary tube and subjected to increasing temperature quickly resolidifies only to melt again and remain melted at a still higher temperature. This phenomenon has not yet been sufficiently investigated to afford a satisfactory explanation. Non-crystalline substances such as glass, sealing wax and various other waxes and wax mixtures, and most colloidal substances do not exhibit a sharp melting point, but under the application of heat first soften very gradually and at a considerably higher temperature melt sufficiently to flow. This phenomenon of melting through a long range of temperature may be due to the amorphous nature of the substance or to the fact that it consists of a very large number of components of many different melting points.