802 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



In the preparation of a-dist<!arin from a-dlchlorhydrin and potassium stearate 

 a large amount of trlstoarin was produced at the same time. The melting jjolnt 

 of the a-dlstearln was 77.8° C. (corrected, 78.5°), but a double melting point 

 could not be noted. 



In the synthetic preparation of /3-palmityldistearin from a-distearin and 

 palmitic acid appreciable amounts of tristearin were formed and a])parently 

 also some stearyldiiialmitin. Synthetic /3-palmityldistearin melted in the neigh- 

 borhood of 63°, and in this regard and in its crj-stallization from ether and the 

 form of its crystals it resembled the palmityldistearin from mutton tallow. 

 The cojni)ound present in mutton tallow is probably the /3 combination. 



The Polenske number is deemed suitable only for determining the grosser 

 adulteration of lard with beef or mutton tallow. The quality of the reaction 

 is not increased by previously crystallizing the fat from .solvents. In many 

 cases as much as 20 per cent of tallow can not be noted with it in lard, and the 

 authors' method, which depc^ids on the difference in the melting point of gly- 

 cerids and the fatty acids of lard and tallow (beef, mutton, and press) is pre- 

 ferred. This method is described with much detail. Leys' (E. S. R., 19, p. 611) 

 and Emery's (E. S. R., 20, p. 11) methods did not furnish satisfactory results. 

 The authors believe that in order to obtain satisfactory results the saturated, 

 fatty acids must be prepared in a more or le.ss pure state, or, to say the least, 

 more definite characteristics of the respective glycerids must be determined. 



The authors' method has been studied with mixtures of lard, beef tallow, and 

 plant oils (coconut, peanut, sesame, and cotton-seed oils), hardened oils (E. S. 

 R., 28, p. 616), mixtures of hardened oils and lard, so-called abnormal lards, 

 mixtures of butter and lard, and lard and goose fat. The so-called abnormal 

 lards were from animals fed on corn, coconut cake, cotton-seed meal, and 

 sesame-seed meal. In none of the fats of these animals were there any signs 

 present such as indicated by the new melting point difference method of the 

 difficultly soluble glycerids and their fatty acids which might make it appear 

 as though beef tallow were added. 



Linseed mucilage, A. Nkville (Jour. Ayr. 8cl. [England], 5 {1913), No. 2, 

 pp. 113-128). — The vegetable mucilages have been only sparingly studied. These 

 experiments show that linseed mucilage is a substance of carbohydrate nature, 

 having all the characteristics of hydrated cellulose, and that the term " muco- 

 cellulose " given to it by Cross and Bevan is well chosen. On hydrolysis it yields 

 both hexose and pentose sugars and practically nothing else. It is considered very 

 doubtful whether the other products obtained in hydrolyzing an average sample 

 are decomposition products, or, at any rate, direct decomposition products of 

 pure mucilage. The exi>erimental results draw attention once more to the use 

 of the term " soluble carbohydrates " in connection with feeding stuffs. In 

 the usual routine analysis of feeds many different compounds are grouped 

 under this heading and are necessarily assigned one feeding value. 



The amount of water-soluble carbohydrates in flaxseed, G. R. Van Kampen 

 (Landw. Vers. Stat., S3 {1914), ^'o. 5-6, pp. Jt71--',76).—The sugar content of 

 flaxseed and linseed cake was determined. The amounts found in the seeds 

 varied from 2 to 2.5 per cent and the cake coming therefrom contained about 

 3 to 4 per cent. The sugar may come from either the glucosids or mucilage 

 present in the seed but only glucose could be detected. Sugar could be detected 

 in the flaxseed coat with copper sulphate and potassium hydroxid. On heating 

 a section of the seed a precipitation of cuprous oxid was very noticeable. The 

 deposition of copper oxid was found to be of less degree in the parenchymatous 

 and sclerenchymatous cells and absent in the innermost parts of the endosperm 

 and the cotyletlon. From the fact that the greater part of the sugar is found 

 in the seed coat and is lost through germination, it is concluded that it does 



