8 ANALYSIS AND ADULTERATIONS OF BUTTER. 



There are no methods for quantitatively separating stearic 

 from palmitic or even from oleic acid, and all analyses dealing 

 with these bodies separately can only be approximative. 



II. Water. The most variable constituent of butter is 

 the water which it unavoidably contains ; according to the 

 care which has been employed in the process of manufacture, 

 smaller or larger quantities are incorporated with the butter, 

 the perfect removal of which by mechanical means is prac- 

 tically impossible. 



As an absolutely valueless and negative constituent, it 

 should be squeezed out as completely as possible during the 

 preparation of the butter. The buyer and consumer merely 

 intends to purchase the fat, and should not therefore be 

 served with perhaps one-fifth of the total weight of his 

 purchase of water, paying the same price for it as for butter. 

 Good butter, carefully prepared and repeatedly pressed 

 directly after being taken out of the churn, does not contain 

 more than 12 per cent., and can easily be made with less than 

 10 per cent. Any considerable excess should therefore be 

 treated as an adulteration, or, at least, as evidence of culpable 

 carelessness on the part of the manufacturer. 



Butter supplies to most people the largest amount of fat 

 they take into their systems. Dr. Parkes estimates " that 

 most persons take from 1 J to 2 oz. daily ; " so that it is 

 a matter of great importance to every individual to get pure 

 butter, and not, as often happens, 15 or 20 per cent, of water. 

 Parkes and Calvert fix the normal amount of water at from 

 5 to 10 per cent.; Hassall and Wanklyn at 12 per cent. ; 

 Watts gives 1 per cent., which appears to be a misprint. Our 

 experience has led us to agree with Hassall and Wanklyn in 

 fixing 12 per cent, as the maximum limit of the amount of 

 water. Very frequently, however, a much larger percentage 

 of water is met with (see tables, pages 15 and 19) ; thus 

 Hassall found that the amount of water ranged in H butters 



