_Prime wax_ is of a bright yellow colour and an agreeable odour, somewhat like that of honey. The best is procured from combs which have been either wholly unoccupied, or occupied by nothing but honey. When first secreted, it is white, semitransparent, and very fragile: it afterwards becomes stronger, and assumes more or less of a yellow hue. This deepening of colour is owing, partly, to its being covered with a yellowish varnish by the bees, (for an account of which see "Architecture" and "Propolis,") and is partly the effect of age. Independently of its colour, the goodness of wax may also be estimated by the passing of the thumb nail forcibly over its surface: if good, the nail will pass with a kind of jerk; but if no obstruction be felt, the wax may be looked upon as adulterated with suet, or some similar substance. The average _quantity yielded by a common hive_, is about half a pound of wax to fifteen pounds of honey; the quantity of both may be considerably increased by storifying. +White wax+ is nothing more than the yellow wax that has been exposed in thin flakes or shreds to the action of the sun and air. There is an apparatus for melting and reducing the wax into shreds or ribbands, but the process of conversion, under any circumstances, is tedious and dependent on the weather. "The following," says Mr. Parkes in his Chemical Essays, "is the usual process, as it is conducted in England. Common bees-wax is melted upon hot water; and when in a fluid state, it is laded out of the copper, together with a part of the water, into a wooden vessel; and in this it is allowed to remain a few hours, for the impurities to subside from it. The purified wax is then put, while still hot, into a cullender full of holes, through which it runs, and falls upon a revolving metallic roller, which dips into cold water contained in a vessel placed underneath. As the melted wax runs through the cullender upon the revolving roller, the motion of the cylinder forms it into thin shavings, which cool as they come in contact with the water, and fall in an accumulated heap into the water below. These shavings of wax, being now in a suitable form for absorbing oxygen, are taken out of the tub, and exposed in a field to the action of the atmosphere, till they become sufficiently white."