170 



THE AMEKICAN MONTHLY 



[September, 



subjected to the prosecution, rich and 

 poor, men and women, publicly ac- 

 kno\vledged, on conviction, that they 

 knew that the substance they were 

 prosecuted for selling was oleomar- 

 garine. Following this Dr. Taylor 

 discussed the experiments of Prof. 

 Weber in relation to the production 

 of the so-called butter crystal by 

 artificial means. Dr. Taylor said 

 that Prof. Weber believes he has, by 

 the use of salt and water, in the man- 

 ner described by him, formed or 

 caused to be formed, butter-like crys- 

 tals by using either oleo oil or lard. 

 In relation to these experiments Dr. 

 Taylor stated that he had lately 

 found that while the kidney and 

 cellular tissue fats gave jDurely stellar 

 crystals without a ci'oss, that a sam- 

 ple of leaf lard, lately tested by him- 

 self, yielded stellar crystals with a 

 cross ; but these crystals could not 

 be mistaken for butter crystals by 

 an experienced observer, since thev 

 show distinctly the spinous character 

 of lard crystals. That the same 

 result is obtained without the use 

 of salt and water is shown also in 

 this connection. Dr. Taylor stated 

 that in point of fact the introduction 

 of salt and water was not necessary 

 to produce the cross. Dr. Tavlor 

 cited the number of fats that he had 

 examined shov\dng in their first 

 stages of crystallization a globose 

 crystal with a cross, all without the 

 addition of salt and water. Dr. Tay- 

 lor stated that in his annual report 

 he had clearly stated that any micro- 

 scopic body which was globose, 

 comparativel}^ smooth, translucent 

 and polarizing would show a cross. 

 Dr. Taylor gave four illustrations 

 upon the blackboard of four difterent 

 fats y\^hose forms could be seen with 

 plain transmitted light. Following 

 this Dr. Taylor threw the form of a 

 cross on each of the illustrations, 

 pointing out the fact that notwith- 

 standing that each was invested with 

 the shadow or illusive marking of 

 the cross, each form could still be 

 distinguished one from the other by 



reason of their peculiarities, thus 

 showing that the presence of the 

 cross would not alter the identifica- 

 tion of lard, beef fat, or other crystals. 

 Dr. Taylor further stated that when 

 Prof. Weber melted a fet and cooled 

 it quickl}' and found that no crystals 

 had formed under these conditions, 

 he but verified what he. Dr. Taylor, 

 had published some ten years ago in 

 the New York quarterly yo^/r^^a/ of 

 J^Iici'oscopy. to wit, that butter sub- 

 stitutes composed of solid fats when 

 newly made and suddenly chilled, did 

 not show any crystals of fat when ex- 

 amined in the fresh condition, but 

 that when laid aside a short time in 

 a moderate temperature the crystals 

 began to form and are readily de- 

 tected. Dr. Taylor further observed 

 that in no case had he found in the 

 oleomargarines, or butterines sold in 

 the Washington markets, butter crys- 

 tals on boiling ; he invariably found 

 foliated crystals of beef fat. 



Dr. Taylor strongly objected to 

 Prof. Weber's constant use of the 

 term ' Characteristic of the Butter 

 Crystal' within quotation mai-ks, 

 stating that nowdiere in his writings 

 or in public speech has he stated 

 that the cross was characteristic of 

 the butter crystal, meaning thereby 

 that the St. Andrew cross, so called, 

 was to be found nowhere except in 

 the globose butter crystal. Dr. Tay- 

 lor has shown that the cross is only 

 a factor, and does not contend that 

 it is exclusively characteristic of the 

 butter crystal. The butter crystal, 

 he stated, had several peculiar char- 

 acteristics ^vhich he has not yet found 

 in connection with any other crystals 

 of fat, animal or vegetable. 



Proyisional Key to Classification of 

 Algaft of Fresh Water.— XI. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



\^Coiicluded from i>age i44-'\ 



VI. ORDER FLORIDE.^. 



vSexual propagation by fruiting of 



a female cell (carpogonium) w^hich 



bears on its end a more or less drawn 



