OLEOMAKGARINE. 



769 



Composition of butter fat 



Dr. WILEY. This table shows the average composition of American 

 butter, a substance about which the committee has heard a great deal. 

 There may be some terms there which are not strictly legal, and which 

 some of you who are farmers may not thoroughly understand. 



Representative WILLIAMS. The first item in the column is "dioxy- 

 stearic acid.' 7 What kin is that to stearin? 



Dr. WILEY. That is a very near relation. 



Representative WILLIAMS. Then it appears that butter has stearin 

 in it? 



Dr. WILEY. Oh, yes. Yes ; it has quite a notable quantity of stearin 

 in it. It not only has dioxystearic acid but it has stearic acid also. 

 These acids which compose butter are, in butter, combined with glyc- 

 erin; and it is the combination of glycerin, which is a base, with these 

 and other acids, which makes the butter fat. 



The acids are named in the left-hand column, the percentage of the 

 acids in the average butter in the middle column, and the percentage 

 of the glycerides (that is the name applied to the combination of the 

 acids with the glycerin) in the right-hand column. 



Now, dioxystearic glyceride of stearin the proper name of that 

 substance would be dioxy stearin, when combined with glycerin corn- 

 composes 1.04 per cent of the average butter fat. 



Eepresentative WADSWORTH. You state positively, then, that butter 

 contains stearin, do you? 



Dr. WILEY. Oh, yes; there is no doubt of that. 



Kepresentative WADSWOBTH. That is positive, is it? 



Dr. WILEY. That is absolutely certain. It contains, altogether, 3 

 per cent of stearin. 



Representative WADSWOBTH. Three per cent of stearin? 



Dr. WILEY. Yes; that is, the two stearins together stearin and 

 dioxystearin form 3 per cent of butter. Olein forms a little over one- 

 third of the whole quantity of butter that is, of course, butter which 

 is free of water, free of curd, and free of salt. These are pure fats. In 

 butter they are not. The butter, as it goes on the market, contains 

 about 12 per cent of water and 2 per cent of curds, and the amount of 

 salt which it is desired to put in it. Some people want more and some 

 less; but this table shows the composition of the pure fats which com- 

 pose the butter. 



Representative WADSWORTH. What relation does oleic acid bear to 

 oleo oil, which is used in the manufacture of butterine? 



Dr. WILEY. Oleo oil is largely pure olein ; not altogether, but prac- 

 tically so. Cotton oil is largely olein and liuoleine and the olein in 

 butter is of exactly the same composition as the olein in cotton- seed oil. 

 Olein, wherever it occurs, whether in animal or vegetable products, has 

 the same composition j and palmitin has the. same composition wherever 

 it occurs. 



'S. Rep. 204J 



(*187) 



