148 OLEOMARGARINE. 



from this city and tried out by the contractor. The horses were such 

 as die in every city from both accident and disease. There were a 

 large number of horses killed in Brooklyn last year that were suffer- 

 ing with glanders. Whether any of these horses helped to make up 

 this oil I do not know; nor does Mr. Beran. The specimen I had in 

 New York was a very fine oil, and it shows that an oil can be made 

 from dead horses which in taste and naked-eye appearances is as palat- 

 able as the best ' oleo ' oil. 



"Mr. Beran has told me that he is satisfied that some of his oil has 

 been used for the manufacture of 'oleo' butter. He has always been 

 very careful about telling me to whom he sells it, and he evidently 

 thinks it is used for that purpose; in fact, he says he knows it has. I 

 give this as his own statement, and for what it is worth. I could not 

 prove it. From the odor, taste, etc. , of this oil I am of the opinion 

 that it can be used to make 'oleomargarine,' and that its use for that 

 purpose ought to be strongly condemned. I also hold that the use of 

 lard tried out at a temperature below 130 F., should be prohibited. 

 Hoping this will answer your questions, I am, 

 "Very sincerely, yours, 



"E. H. BARTLEY, M. D. 



' ' It might be asked if natural butter was not exposed to the same 

 contamination. We answer that it is not; for, in the first place, the 

 fat of milk is doubtless manufactured in the gland by the metabolic 

 action 1 of the protoplasmic cells, and consequently would not be apt to 

 contain disease germs even if they were in the cow's system, unless the 

 udder itself was diseased. Then, too, it is difficult to make good butter 

 from a diseased cow; and but few farmers would risk their reputation 

 by selling butter made from sick cattle. Furthermore, I am unable 

 to find a single authentic instance where milk butter has produced any 

 serious sickness, which, in consideration of the length of time it has 

 been known, is significant. 



' k Dr. Alfred Hill, on account of assertions being made that the milk 

 quickly became rancid and produced typhoid fever, and that the but- 

 ter was very offensive which came from cows that had been partly fed 

 on sewage grass, made a thorough examination of the milk and its but- 

 ter which came from the Birmingham Sewage Farm, and found that 

 the keeping and other qualities of the milk were not in the least infe- 

 rior to ordinary milk. In regard to the butter, he says: 'In order to 

 test the quality of the butter made from it, I requested the wife of the 

 farm manager, who thoroughly understands butter making (although 

 no butter is ordinarily made on the sewage farm), to make a churning 

 for me, which she was kind enough to do. The resulting butter was 

 excellent in quality and retained its sweetness and other properties as 

 well as other fresh butter, although the weather at the time was exces- 

 sively hot; so that the conditions of the experiment were as unfavora- 

 ble as possible.' 



"When we look over the ingredients used in making artificial butter 

 or preparing the fats and oils for the same, and find such powerful 

 acids as sulphuric, nitric, benzoic, salicylic, etc., and such alkalies as 

 caustic soda, bicarbonate of soda, carbonate of ammonia, saleratus, sal 

 soda, etc., and such drugs as sugar of lead, alum, carbonate of potash, 

 nitrate of soda, sulphate of soda, borax, niter, etc., and such easily 

 decomposed material as slippery-elm bark, rennet, yolk of eggs, cow's 

 udder, fresh vegetable pulps, etc., mixed with it, and after having 



