BUTTER. 59 



at present the chemist will act wisely in declining to pro- 

 nounce on the difference between butter-fat and other fat. 



In the butter-trade there are certainly two kinds of fraud 

 which are very rife. The one is the passing off of butter of 

 inferior flavor for butter of high flavor. ' The other is the 

 making of butter take up too much water and salt. 



An investigation, which I had the honor of making for 

 Government, illustrates how these two descriptions of fraud 

 are practised in the London workhouses. 



I quote the report in extenso : 



"REPORT ON THE BUTTER SUPPLIED TO THE 

 METROPOLITAN UNIONS. 



" Good butter, as it occurs in the market, consists of 12.5 

 per cent, of water, 1.0 per cent, of salt, a little caseine, and 

 the rest of butter-fats ; salt butter may contain 5 per cent, 

 of salt. 



" The falsifications to which butter is liable are said to be 

 the adulteration of it with organic substances like starch or 

 gelatine, substances which are not fat ; adulteration with fat 

 which is not butter-fat ; undue moisture, and saltness. 



" In the fifty specimens of workhouse butter sent to me 

 by Mr. F. W. Rowsell between 8th May and 7th July, 1871, 

 I have not noted any case of adulteration with starch or other 

 organic matter which is not fat. 



" The adulteration of butter-fat with foreign fats that is 

 to say, with fat which is not the fat of butter is not capable 

 of being ascertained with precision in the present state of 

 chemical methods of analysis. 



" In the instance of butter No. 6, viz., ' St. Giles-in-the- 

 Eields (officers),' I have met with a butter in which there 

 appears to be some foreign fat. 



"The point brought out by my examination is the extra.- 



