VEGETABLE OILS. 43 



oil from cannel coal. When was that oil first formed ? Thousands of years ago : and 

 yet its quality remains so good that it is now compared with sperm oil. Its non-oxi- 

 dizing property renders it peculiarly fitted for the lubrication of machinery. 



As respects the varied social purposes to which it is applied, we may refer to the 

 perfumes of Eau de Cologne and Lavender ; the immense quantities of candles and soap 

 which are manufactured in great part from vegetable fats ; the oiling of machinery, 

 which is carried to so great an extent, that the London and North "Western Railway 

 Company alone use about 50,000 gallons of oil per year ; the support of artificial light 

 by lamps ; the exhibition of oil for medicinal purposes as the castor and cocoa-nut 

 oils ; and the employment of oil as an article of diet by the inhabitants of all extreme 

 climates. Thus but few articles of commerce can more materially influence the well- 

 being of the community than that under consideration. 



It is also worthy of remark how closely the production of oil links together the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms, not merely in the general chemical and economic 

 characters of the substance, but in its minuter details. Thus we have the fluid oils, as 

 the olive oil, and the semi-fluid, or such as require a higher temperature than that of 

 the air in order to render them fluid, and which closely resemble the fat of animals. 

 There is also vegetable butter, which is largely used in India to adulterate the ghee, or 

 animal butter ; and vegetable wax and tallow may, in some sense, rival the like produc- 

 tions from the animal kingdom. There is, however, this remarkable difference viz., 

 that the fat of animals and of vegetables, each abound in climates the most opposed to 

 each other. The vegetable oils and butters are chiefly derived from the Palm trees of 

 the hottest climates ; but the animal oils and fats are met with in greatest abundance 

 where the rigours of a polar clime call for the internal use of such articles of food in 

 order to maintain the animal heat. Thus the fat of animals is, for the most part, 

 smployed by the Laplander as food ; whilst that of vegetables is chiefly used by the 

 Asiatic and African for external inunction, as a defence from the action of the sun's 

 rays, and as a perfume, which is more than a luxury in the stifling atmosphere of the 

 sunny south. Nature has thus bountifully provided for the wants of man, and in g?-eat 

 wisdom has selected, as her depositories, that division of vital existences which is the 

 most abundant in their respective climates. The inhabitants of temperate regions, ts of 

 England, find within their own territories only feeble representatives of the products of 

 the two classes ; and in order to enjoy them they require to collect the animal oils from 

 the Polar Seas, northern forests, and the banks of Newfoundland, and the vegetable 

 oils from the neighbourhood of the tropics. Commerce, therefore, is to them a necessity. 



This branch of trade is as yet in its very infancy, for {he Great Exhibition of 1851 

 has shown that a very large proportion of vegetable oils is unknown to the commerce 

 of the world ; and the great effort which has been of late put forth to increase it, has 

 led us to infer that multitudes of vegetable sources yet remain untouched. 



"We cannot enter largely into this question, but shall now proceed to indicate some 

 of the more ordinary and useful sources of this substance. 



Fixed Oils, Olive Oil is produced from the Olea Europcea, a shrubby tree, culti- 

 vated with great sare in Spain and Italy, Syria, and other shores of the Mediterranean 

 Sea. It thrives hest in stony ground, and requires a southern clime, in order to perfect 

 the oil contained in the olive berry. The virgin oil is produced by simple pressure of 

 the olives ; but that of the inferior qualities is such as is drawn off after the virgin oil 

 has been removed, and which requires heat and water in order to obtain the full 

 quantity remaining. It is mentioned as an article of food in the Sacred writings j and 



