PROCEEDINGS OF THE CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 480 



for the consideration and agitation of it, until thoroughly good 

 practical remedies be applied to its many evils. That there are 

 many difficulties in the way there can be no doubt, yet if the 

 main body of agriculturists would but give their attention to it — 

 and it is chiefly a farmer's question — these would soon disappear, 

 and a system would be introduced which, in providing care and 

 comfort for the animals during transit, would far more than repay 

 for any consequent trouble in the immense saving of " condition," 

 injury from disease, and loss by death, which it would effect. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 



By Thomas Anderson, M.D., F.R.S.E., Chemist to the Society. 



ON THE COMPOSITION OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF LINSEED, 

 AND THE CAKES THEY YIELD. 



Having had occasion lately to inquire into various matters 

 connected with the adulteration of oil-cake, it became of import- 

 ance to me to have some information as to the extent to which 

 the composition of genuine linseed from different localities might 

 vary. That it did vary, abundant experience of the analysis of 

 oil-cakes had sufficiently shown me ; but from these analyses it 

 was not possible to draw conclusions as accurate as I required, 

 owing to the difficulty to proving the entire absence of foreign 

 contaminations. On looking into the matter, I found that there 

 was really little reliable information on the subject. The number 

 of analyses of linseed on record is small ; and though that of cakes 

 is very large, the analyses very rarely tell whether the sample 

 was free from foreign seeds or not. To those who are acquainted 

 with the mode in which commercial articles are prepared for 

 the market, it is obvious that absolute purity is neither to 

 be expected nor found, and that it is necessary to be contented 

 with what may be called commercial purity, in which the quantity 

 of foreign matters is not sufficiently large to produce any per- 

 ceptible effect on the commercial value of the article. My object 

 being to ascertain what would be the composition of a perfectly 

 pure cake, and what effect would be produced on its value by the 

 presence of such impurities as may be legitimately allowed in a 

 genuine oil-cake, I found it necessary to proceed in another way, 

 and to commence with a series of samples of linseed of different 

 kinds and prices, in which the amount of impurity was ascertained, 

 by determining the weight of the foreign seeds, sand, &c, which 

 could be separated by picking them out, and then analysing the 

 samples, both in their impure and pure state. From these data, 

 it was possible to calculate, on assumptions, the grounds of which 



