According to the latest reports of the American consul at Marseilles, 

 the conversion of cocoanut oil into dietetic compounds was undertaken in 

 that city in 1900, by Messrs. Kocca, Tassy and de Koux, who in that 

 year turned out an average of 25 tons per month. During the year just 

 closed (1902) their average monthly output exceeded 6,000 tons and, in 

 addition to this, four or five other large factories were all working to- 

 gether to meet the world's demand for "vegetaline," "cocoaline," or 

 other products with suggestive names, belonging to this infant industry. 



These articles are sold at gross price of 18 to 20 cents per kilo to 

 thrifty Hollandish and Danish merchants, who, at the added cost of a 

 cent or two, repack them in tins. branded "Dairy Butter" and, as such, 

 ship them all parts of the civilized world. It was necessary to disguise 

 the earlier products by subjecting them to trituration with milk or 

 cream ; but so perfect is the present emulsion that the plain and unadul- 

 terated fats now find as ready a market as butter. These "butters" have 

 so far found their readiest sale in the Tropics. 



The significance of these great discoveries to the cocoanut planter can 

 not be overestimated, for to none of these purely vegetable fats do the 

 prejudices attach that so long and seriously have handicapped those de- 

 rived from animal margarin or margarin in combination with stearie 

 acid, while the low fusion point of pure dairy butters necessarily pro- 

 hibits their use in the Tropics, outside of points equipped with refriger- 

 ating plants. The field, therefore, is practically without competition, 

 and the question will no longer be that of finding a market, but of pro- 

 curing the millions of tons of copra or oil that this one industry will 

 annually absorb in the immediate future. 



Cocoanut oil was once used extensively in the manufacture of fine 

 candles, and is still occasionally in demand for this purpose in the Phil- 

 ippines, in combination with the vegetable tallow of a species of 

 Stillingia. It is largely consumed in lamps, made of a tumbler or drink- 

 ing glass half filled with water, on top of which float a few spoonfuls of 

 oil, into which the wick is plunged. In remote barrios it is still in 

 general use as a street illuminant, and so perfect is its combustion that 

 under a constant flicker it emits little or no smoke. 



When freshly expressed, the oil is an exceptionally good cooking fat, 

 and enters largely into the dietary of our own people. The medicinal 

 uses of the oil are various, and in the past it has been strongly advocated 

 for the cure of eczema, burns, as a vermifuge, and even as a substitute 

 for cod-liver oil in phthisis. Its medicinal virtues are now generally 

 discredited, except as a restorative agent in the loss of hair resulting 

 from debilitating fevers. Its value in this direction may be surmised 

 from the splendid heads of hair possessed by the Filipino women, who 

 generally use the oil as a hair dressing. 



Cocoanut oil is derived from the fleshy albumen or meat of the ripe 

 fruit, either fresh or dried. The thoroughly dried meat is variously 



