derived from adeps, fat, and cera, 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 animals are buried, especially in damp soil, as in a common churchyard. Great quantities of this substance were found on removing the animal matters from a burial-ground 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 spermaceti.