22 FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



caprylic, capronic, and butyric acids. The only experiments upon the digestibility 

 of imitation butter are two, by A. A. Mayer, upon oleomargarine. These showed a 

 difference of only about 2 per cent, in favor of butter. That the higher flavor of 

 butter acting upon the nervous system would give it a greater nutritive value than 

 the flavorless " neutral " or "oleo" may be conceded ; but that an article which even 

 experts fail to distinguish from genuine butter is at any serious disadvantage in this 

 respect may well be doubted. 



The manufacturers claim that imitation butter can only be made from the best 

 quality of fat from freshly-killed animals, and I know of no evidence which disproves 

 their assertions. The sensational article recently published in a prominent agricult- 

 ural paper in the Northwest, accompanied by cuts of the num erous organisms found 

 in bntterine, is of no significance in this connection, both because the species de- 

 scribed are all harmless, and because no comparative examinations of genuine butter 

 were made. It is highly probable that many samples of t he latter would show as 

 miscellaneous an assortment of formidable looking, harmless organisms as did the 

 butterine. 



On the other hand, however, there is at present no guaranty, except the statement 

 of the manufacturers, that diseased fat is not or cannot be used, the manufacture be- 

 ing conducted entirely without any official inspection, and visitors being in most (not 

 all) cases excluded. I believe that the chances o f disease being conveyed in this way 

 are small, but they are not yet proved to be non-existent. 



As regards filthy processes of manufacture, it may safely bo asserted that butterine 

 could not successfully imitate butter were it not as clean as most things are which 

 pass for clean in this dirty world. 



The cluirge that dangerous chemicals are used in the manufacture may be disposed 

 of in a few words. If a dangerous amount of any chemical which is claimed to be 

 used were left in the finished product the latter would be inedible. Should trace of 

 these chemicals be found their significance would not lie in themselves, but in the in- 

 dication they would furnish that the original fats were impure and required chemical 

 treatment. 



Sell l has made an examination of the evidence for and against the uu- 

 wholesomeuess of artificial butter and has reached the following con- 

 clusions : 



The artificial butter prepared from the fat of healthy animals, apart from possibly 

 a somewhat less digestibility, in comparison with milk -butter furnishes in general no 

 reason for the supposition that it can affect injuriously human health. 



There is ground for the suspicion that a part of the artificial butter occurring in 

 commerce is manufactured out of such material or by such processes as do not with 

 certainty exclude the danger of coaveying to man disease whether produced by vege- 

 table spores or animal parasites. 



There is ground for suspicion that a part of the artificial butter is made from naus- 

 eating substances. 



The possibility of injury to health from a carelessly-prepared artificial 

 butter must not be neglected. 



Dr. Thomas Taylor presented this aspect of the case to the Senate 

 Committee. 2 



It has already been mentioned that in the earlier processes employed 

 in the manufacture of artificial butter the stomachs of sheep and pigs 

 were digested with the fats employed. 



1 Arbeiten a. d. Kaiserlichen Gesundheitsauite, pp. 494, 500. 

 Op. cit. pp. 42-40 and 273-4. 



