439] ADULTERATION AND OLEOMARGARINE 2 I$ 



been shown, however, to be a mixture of stearin and pal- 

 mitin. 1 Stearin is the hardest of these constituents, and 

 inasmuch as the manufacture of oleomargarine involved 

 the separation of most of the stearin from olein and mar- 

 garine, according to the belief that olein and margarine 

 were separate and distinct substances, the combination of 

 these two could properly be called oleomargarine. In Eng- 

 land, France and Germany, the product is known as " mar- 

 garine ", but in America as oleomargarine. Oleomargarine 

 may be defined as an artificial butter made chiefly from 

 animal and vegetable fats churned with milk to give it the 

 butter flavor. The federal oleomargarine law of August 2, 

 1886, section 2, defines oleomargarine as follows: 



"That for the purposes of this act certain manufactured sub- 

 stances, certain extracts, and certain mixtures and compounds, 

 including such mixtures and compounds with butter, shall be 

 known and designated as " Oleomargarine," namely : All sub- 

 stances heretofore known as oleomargarine, oleo, oleomar- 

 garine oil, butterine, lardine, suine, and neutral; all mixtures 

 and compounds of oleomargarine, oleo, oleomargarine-oil, 

 butterine, lardine, suine and neutral ; all lard extracts and tal- 

 low extracts and all mixtures and compounds of tallow, beef- 

 fat, suet, lard, lard-oil, vegetable oil, annotto, and other color- 

 ing matter, intestinal fat, and offal fat made in imitation or 

 semblance of butter, or when so made, calculated or intended 

 to be sold as butter or for butter. 



The formula for the manufacture of oleomargarine was 

 worked out by M. Mege Mouries, a Parisian chemist, in 

 1867. 2 Napoleon III. of France offered a prize for the dis- 

 covery of a process by which an artificial butter could be 



1 New English Dictionary. 



2 Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Internal Revenue for 1887, 

 p. cli. 



