468 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



of a different color to that of a sample of genuine olive, the approximate amount of 

 adulteration can be found by making and operating on a few mixtures containing a 

 known percentage of the adulterant. A little experience in working the test will won- 

 derfully assist in determining the percentage of admixture in any sample, but in all cases 

 I would recommend that the test be performed in conjunction with a sample of genuine 

 olive. The quantities which I have been in the habit of using are, one half a fluid drachm 

 of nitric acid and nine and one half fluid drachms of oil, and having used the test for 

 about three years, I can confidently recommend it as thoroughly reliable and constant 

 when carefully carried out. The heat should be removed as soon as the action has fairly 

 started, and the mixture should be kept well stirred until the action is over. Should too 

 much heat be applied, the action becomes violent and unmanageable, and some of the 

 mixture will spurt out of the dish. The spurting, however, may be prevented, by placing 

 a plate, or other fiat body, over the dish. The results obtained are never as good when 

 the action is so violent as to cause spurting. 



The reputation of the author of the above is sufficient to recommend the 

 certainty of the test, but as all consumers have not the material or appa- 

 ratus at hand, they can satisfy themselves of the large percentage of adul- 

 teration contained in at least one of the most popular brands imported 

 from Europe by a much simpler method. 



Take one bottle of Lucca oil, put up by Crosse & Blackwell, of London,, 

 and one bottle of my oil; put both in an ice freezer where the temperature 

 is as low as 35° to 40° F., and leave them over night. An inspection in the 

 morning will satisfy any one who may now have doubts as to the adultera- 

 tion of the former. 



The adulteration of the Barton & Guestier oil cannot be exposed by this 

 test, but your druggist can expose it for you by the " Couroy " method. I 

 only mention these two brands, for the reason that they command the high- 

 est price and are the favored importations. While I was engaged in the 

 shipping business in the city of New York, our firm had one telegraphic 

 order for one thousand tierces of hog's lard to go to the Mediterranean fo> 

 adulterate olive oil. 



One year's exports of cotton-seed oil from New Orleans to the Mediter- 

 ranean was sufficient in quantity to fill "fifteen million" ordinary oil bot- 

 tles, the cost of the oil in each bottle being less than ten cents. So long as 

 our people are willing to pay a dollar for what is not worth anything, and 

 which costs less than ten cents, so long will hog's lard and cotton seed, 

 under false labels, be consumed by them as olive oil. As to the effect on 

 the human body of a liberal use of these admixtures I refer to my previ- 

 ous article, or to the writings on the subject by every intelligent author 

 since the commencement of time. 



Article XII. — Conclusion. 



With this chapter my articles on olive culture will close. Before clos- 

 ing, however, it is necessary to add, as supplementary to Article VIII, 

 that insect pests destructive to the olive, as also to citrus fruits, are called 

 by different names. I have in my article used the scientific name of 

 Coccus olece in speaking of the black scale. 



In a very interesting treatise on insect pests published by Matthew Cooke, 

 Chief Horticultural Officer of this State, this insect is called Lecan&um 

 olese, given as the classification of Monsieur V. Signoret, of Paris; also in 

 the same book from a paper of Professor Comstock, this insect is called 

 Lecanium olese. This scientist also claims that he has discovered scale 

 insects not previously described or named. Different names for the same 

 thing is very unfortunate and misleads the investigator. We who have 

 to fight insect pests care very little under what name we fight them, but 

 we want information, and cannot afford the confusion or difficulties to be 

 met with by reason of a multiplicity of names. If scientists who claim 



