18 FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



ally aud chemically. When the substance was first introduced, the quest ion was 

 raised as to whether it could bo distinguished from butter by any test, and I was led 

 in that way to investigate the subject, aud to examine as to all the properties which 

 it exhibited, as well as to compare different samples of it, and I have in my experi- 

 ments in this line examined great numbers of specimens of oleomargarine prepared 

 as butter and of oleomargarine oil for the preparation of butter, from all parts of the 

 country, and also have visited factories very frequently and spent long periods there. 

 I have remained as long as a week in one of these factories continuously sometimes 

 spending the night as well as the day there, in order to watch the process completely 

 and see the operation from beginning to end, to see what was put in and what was 

 not, and to observe what was done and what was not done. 



In the course of these examinations I have reached the conclusion, founded on these 

 observations, that the material is of necessity, a pure one, and cannot possibly beun- 

 wholeaome, and is, in fact, in that sense a thoroughly desirable and safe article of food. 

 I will express as briefly as I can my reasons for this opinion, and state the facts on 

 which they are founded. 



In the first place I have found, as a matter of observation, that fat svhich is to be 

 used in the manufacture of oleomargarine, if it is in the slightest degree tainted be- 

 fore the manufacture begins, if it is not strictly fresh, if it is not taken almost directly 

 from the slaughtered animal, if it is allowed to stand in a barrel for a few hours in 

 ordinary weather or in cold weather, if put in a barrel with any auimal heat in it for 

 a few hours, then an incipient change begins which, in the succee ding process, is ex- 

 aggerated so that an utterly offensive material is produced, which could not be used 

 for any such purpose. 



Prof. C. F. Chandler says : T 



In all of these reports I have taken the ground that this is a new process for rnaki ng 

 an old article, aud that article is butter. This is a new process for making butter. It 

 is made of materials which are in every respect wholesome aud proper articles of food, 

 whether it be made solely from the oleomargarine extracted from beef fat, or uhether 

 it has added to it more or less leaf lard properly prepared, or more or less sesame oil 

 or cotton-seed oil, aud whether it be t ornot colored withaunatto or the other coloriug 

 matters used. I take the ground that there is nothing in any one of these materials 

 in any sense unwholesome, aud nothing in any one of them which makes it inferior 

 as an article of food to dairy butter. I regard the discovery of Mege-Mouries, of a 

 process by which beef fat and hog fat can be extracted from a dipose tissue and con- 

 verted into a wholesome article of food free from any disagreeable taste or odor, as 

 one of the most important discoveries made in this century, a discovery by which it 

 is possible to make a perfectly pure aud satisfactory, as well as wholesome, article of 

 food at a reasonable price. I have visited various factories where this article is man- 

 ufactured, from the time the industry began down to date. I am perfectly famUiar 

 with the materials employed and the different processes, an d know there is nothing 

 whatever used either in material or process which is unwholesome or in any way dele- 

 terious to the public health. 



Professor Chandler further has reported as follows to the Board of 



Health of New York City: 2 



NEW YOIIK, May 2, 1881. 

 To the Board of Health of the Health Department : 



Having been directed by this board to investigate the subject of oleomargarine, in 

 response to the resolutions of the Board of Aldermen, I would beg leave to submit the 

 following report : 



The resolutions directing the inquiry are as follows: 



Whereas there is existing at the present time in the minds of the public great 

 alarm and distrust in relation to the adulteration of food products ; and 



1 Op. cit. , p. 67. 2 Op. cit.,p. 70. 



