Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/536

 516 WAX WAX 'PLANT of water. Japan wax, also called tree wax, is obtained in the East Indies from the root of rhus tuccedanea. It ia yellowish white and somewhat softer than beeswax ; slightly solu- ble in absolute alcohol at ordinary tempera- tures, completely so at the boiling point, and soluble in ether and in volatile and fixed oils. It is said not to be a true wax, but a glyceride, being resolved by fusion with potassium hydrate into palmitic acid and glycerine. The palm wax of Colombia is obtained from the ceroxylon andicola. The scrapings from the exterior of the tree are boiled by the Indians, and the wax rises to the surface. It is grayish white and crude, and after purification by digesting in alcohol is yellowish white; it fuses at about 162 F. The ocuba wax of Brazil is derived from the kernels of the fruit of several species of myristica, especially the M. ocuba. It melts at 98 F. The myrtle wax, which for many years has been an article of commerce in the United States, also known as "candleberry wax " and " bayberry tallow," occurs as an in- crustation on the berries of the wax myrtle or bayberry, myrica cerifera. The berries are enclosed in bags of coarse cloth, and boiled in water, the wax collecting on the surface being drawn off and cast in moulds. It varies in color from grayish yellow to deep green, has a bal- samic and slightly aromatic odor, a specific grav- ity of 1-004 to 1-006, fuses between 117 and 120 F., and is much harder and more brittle than beeswax. It is composed, according to Mr. G. E. Moore, of 20 per cent, of a substance called palmitine, which exists in palm oil, and 80 per cent, of palmitic acid, with a small quantity of lauric acid. Its illuminating power is scarcely inferior to that of the best bees- wax ; it costs only about one fourth as much, and is easily bleached and cast in moulds. The plant grows abundantly along the coast in New England and on Long Island. Planta- tions of it have long existed in Europe, and it has been cultivated in Algeria. Several min- eral substances resemble wax in physical prop- erties and composition, the principal of which are ozocerite and hatchettine. Ozocerite was discovered by Meyer in a sandstone in Molda- via, in the vicinity of coal and rock salt. It also occurs at the Urpeth colliery, Newcastle- npon-Tyne. It has a resinous waxy consistence and translucence, and sometimes a foliated structure. Its specific gravity is 0-94 to 0-97. According to Johnston, the Urpeth variety melts at 110 F. and boils at 250. It distils without decomposition, and is not altered by strong acids. The Moldavia variety dissolves slightly in ether, but the Urpeth to the extent of four fifths. Hatchettine or mineral tallow occurs in the coal measures of Glamorganshire, Wales, in crystals and amorphous thin laminae having the consistence of spermaceti ; specific gravity, 0'916. It has a greasy feel, melts at 133 F., and distils without change when cau- tiously heated. It is composed, according to Johnston, of 85-6 per cent, of carbon and 14'4 per cent, of hydrogen. Similar mineral waxes are also found in Moravia, and at Loch Fyiie, near Inverness, Scotland. WAXBILL. See FINCH. WAX FIGURES. The employment of wax in imitative art dates from a period anterior to historical times, although, according to Pliny, it was not cast in moulds previous to the time of Lysistratus, who flourished about 300 B. C., and whose productions, said to be the first of their kind, were chiefly portraits cast in plaster moulds taken from the face. Wax portraits eventually became common, and among the Romans, who placed them in the vestibules of their houses, were regarded as an evidence of ancient nobility, as none were allowed to pos- sess such images whose families had not borne some curule magistracy. Polybius relates that these images, habited in the costume appropri- ate to their age and rank, were carried in funeral processions, or seated in chairs in the forum. In the middle ages wax was employed in the construction of images of saints and of votive images, and those who practised.sorcery melted before a slow fire wax figures of the persons against whom their incantations were directed. In the latter half of the 15th century Andrae del Verrocchio and Or&ino gained considera- ble reputation by some figures of Lorenzo do' Medici, their joint production, which consisted of frameworks of wood or skeletons for the bodies and limbs, while the heads, hands, and feet were cast in wax, painted in oil colors to counterfeit life. They were furnished with glass eyes and natural hair, and habited in the costume usually worn by Lorenzo. Vasari speaks of the life-like appearance of these figures, and adds that the art declined rapidly after the time of Orsino. The manufacture of wax figures of the size of life is still carried on to a considerable extent, but has long ceased to be considered a branch of the fine arts, no imitative skill or taste on the part of the artist being sufficient to overcome the ghastly fixed- ness which such images must always present. In the preparation of anatomical models and pathological examples, however, wax has been very advantageously employed, the invention being duo to Gaetano Giulio Zummo, a famous modeller in colored wax, who flourished in the latter half of the 17th century. But this em- ployment of wax has been to a great extent superseded by papier mache, which is much stronger and more durable, and can be more safely and conveniently handled in the lec- ture room. (See ANATOMICAL PREPARATIONS.) Flowers are made from thin leaves of colored wax, and receive their local tints by means of a pencil. WAX MYRTLE. See BATBKHRT. WAX PLANT, a name given to climbing greenhouse shrubs of the genus Hoya (named in honor of Thomas Hoy, a distinguished Eng- lish gardener of the early part of this century), of the milkweed family (caclepiadaceai), and natives of various parts of the East Indies.