104 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wholesome, and — sentimentally regarded — ^less objectionable, than the 

 fat obtained from the carcass of a slaughtered animal. 



When common sense and true sentiment supplant mere unreasoning 

 prejudice, vegetable oils and vegetable fats will largely supplant those 

 of animal origin in every element of our dietary. We are but just 

 beginning to understand them. Chevreul, who was the first to teach 

 us the chemistry of fats, is still living, and we are only learning how to 

 make butter (not " inferior Dorset," but " choice Normandy ") without 

 the aid of dairy produce. There is, therefore, good reason for antici- 

 pating that the inexhaustible supplies of oil obtainable from the vege- 

 table world — especially from tropical vegetation — will ere long be 

 freely available for kitchen uses, and the now popular product of the 

 Chicago hog factories will be altogether banished therefrom, and used 

 only for greasing cart-wheels and other machinery. 



As a practical conclusion of this part of my subject, I will quote 

 from this month's number of " The Oil Trade Review " the current 

 wholesale prices of some of the oils possibly available for frying pur- 

 poses. Olive-oil, from £43 to £90 per ton of 252 gallons ; Cod-oil^ 

 £36 per ton ; Sardine or train (i, e., the oil that drains from pilchards, 

 herrings, sardines, etc., when salted), £27 IO5. to £28 per ton. Cocoa- 

 nut, from £35 to £38 per ton of 20 cwt. (This, in the case of oil, is 

 nearly the same as the measured ton.) Palm, from £38 to £40 10s. 

 per ton ; Palm-nut or copra, £31 IO5. per ton ; Refined cotton-seed, 

 £30 10s. to £31 per ton ; Lard, £53 to £55 per ton. The above are 

 the extreme ranges of each class. I have not copied the technical 

 names and prices of the intermediate varieties. One penny per pound 

 is = £9 6s. 8c?. per ton, or, in round numbers, £1 per ton may be reck- 

 oned as one ninth of a penny per pound. Thus the present price of 

 best refined cotton-seed oil is 2>\d. per pound ; of cocoanut-oil, 2>\d. ; 

 palm-oil, from Z\d. to 4^c?., while lard costs 6<?. per pound wholesale — 

 usually Id. 



I should add, in reference to the seed-oils, that there is a possible 

 objection to their use as frying media. Oils extracted from seeds con- 

 tain more or less of linoleine (so named from its abundance in linseed- 

 oil), which, when exposed to the air, combines with oxygen, swells and 

 dries. If the oil from cotton-seed or poppy-seed contains too much of 

 this, it will thicken inconveniently when kept for a length of time ex- 

 posed to the air. Palm-oil is practically free from it, but I am doubt- 

 ful respecting palm-nut-oil, as most of the nut-oils are "driers." — 

 Knowledge. 



