derived from adeps, fat, and ceras, wax, denotes a substance which has been lately examined by chemists. It is formed by a certain change which the soft parts of animal bodies undergo, when kept for some time in running water, or when a great number of dead bodies are heaped together in the same place. Great quantities of this substance were found on removing the animal matters from the burial ground of the Innocents at Paris in the year 1787. In this burial-ground, 1200 or 1500 bodies were thrown together into the same pit, and being decomposed, were converted into this substance. It has some of the properties of wax or spermacti. See Chemistry Index.