OILS 



Chief Kinds 



Paint. 



Uses of Oil. 



Soap. 



Candles. 



Kerosene. 



House 

 Illumination. 



Cheap Lamps. 



Chief Oils 

 and Fats. 



OILS, OIL-SEEDS AND PEKFUMEKY 



To the Natives of India OILS might be described as chiefly of interest 

 as articles of diet or as illuminants. They are but rarely employed as 

 lubricants. The painting of woodwork is a luxury of the wealthy. With 

 the peasant, the ornamentation of the implements of his trade or the 

 materials of his pastime are coloured, when coloured at all, on the turning- 

 lathe and by means of lac. The dyers and leather- workers, however, all 

 use oil, and have done so from the remotest antiquity. One of the most 

 important Indian uses of oil, and one comparatively unknown in Europe, 

 is the anointment of the person with mustard or rape and a few other 

 sweet oils. The use of soap as a personal detergent cannot be said to be 

 more than a luxury, and indeed, to the mass of the people, an unknown 

 luxury. Crude soap is, however, largely manufactured and sold in every 

 village to be employed by the washermen and dyers. 



Candles were never very extensively used by the Natives of India, but 

 the modern demand for kerosene oil and the cheap German lamps, specially 

 designed for service with mineral oils, has largely supplanted the candles 

 of former times. In fact the great popularity of kerosene and other 

 mineral oils, within recent years, has doubtless curtailed the cultivation 

 and manufacture of most of the minor oils, more especially those intended 

 as illuminants and lubricants. It is a matter of twenty-five to thirty years 

 ago, at most, since every European resident in India, and all the wealthier 

 Natives, employed either castor or cocoanut oil exclusively for house 

 illumination. The subsequent introduction of refined kerosene from 

 America drove these completely out of use, and that too within a remark- 

 ably short time, just as electricity seems destined to displace kerosene and 

 gas. The introduction of less pure though cheaper Russian oil and the 

 invention of cheap lamps (already mentioned) may be said to have marked 

 the still greater displacement of vegetable illuminating oils. Kerosene 

 has, in fact, effected a revolution in the domestic economy of the people of 

 India that is marked by an increasing demand for luxury and convenience, 

 one of the many expressions of prosperity that come direct from the 

 peasantry. The present article will be made, as far as possible, to exclude 

 Petroleum (p. 875), though in some instances this may be impossible (e.g. 

 candles) when the returns do not separate the mineral oils and their 

 manufactures from the corresponding vegetable and animal products. 



The following are the chief sources of the vegetable and animal OILS 

 and FATS of INDIA, in the sequence of their scientific or trade names : 



Arachis the Earth-nut (see pp. 76, 80-3); Bassia the Mahua 

 (p. 120) ; Brassica Mustard and Rape (pp. 183-6) ; Butter (pp. 475-8) ; 

 Camellia Tea-seed ; Camphor (p. 247) ; Cannabis Hemp (pp. 256-7) ; 

 Carthamus Safflower (pp. 281-3) ; Cocos Cocoanut (Kopra) (pp. 

 357-60); Dipterocarpus (Eng) (pp. 501-2); Fish-oil (pp. 544-5); Garcinia 

 Kokum Butter (p. 553) ; Ghi Clarified Butter (pp. 478-82) ; Gossypium 

 Cotton-seed (pp. 612-3) ; Guizotia Niger-seed (p. 625) ; Juglans Walnut 

 (p. 700) ; Lard and Tallow (pp. 701-3) ; Linum Linseed (pp. 725-31) ; 

 Moringa Ben Oil, (p. 784) ; Papaver Poppy-seed (p. 860) ; Ricinus 

 Castor (p. 922) ; Sesamum Til or Gingelly (pp. 986-7) ; and Wax 

 (Bees') (pp. 125-7). 



There are many others that of course might be mentioned, but 

 the above are representative of the Fats and Oils of commercial 

 importance. In passing, reference may be given to BomJ>a& (see 

 p. 168) ; Cochlosperrmim Gossypium, DC., the White Silk-cotton Tree 



812 



