MARGARINE. 319 



of animals, and are, as common experience has shown, less easily 

 digested than the latter. 



It goes without saying, that attempts have been made, in order 

 to promote its sale, to make margarine as attractive as possible. 

 There is no reason, however, on this account, for rendering the new 

 fat similar in external appearance to butter, or for bringing it on 

 the market in a similar form and packed in the same way as butter. 

 The great resemblance of the prepared animal fats to butter has 

 always this disadvantage, that it opens the way to fraudulent 

 practices, and has thus a tendency to destroy the honest character 

 of the sale. The possibility of fraud was formerly increased by the 

 universal practice of calling margarine by the name of butterine; 

 that is, by a title which was only justified by the appearance of the 

 margarine, but which was otherwise strained on account of the fact 

 that not only was the chemical behaviour of the margarine, but also 

 its mechanical texture and fundamental condition, different from 

 that of butter. 



Of more importance still than the use of the word butterine, 

 was the manufacture of mixtures of margarine and butter, and the 

 manufacture of mixed butters, which were commonly used in the 

 years 1884 and 1885. These different titles indicated, clearly enough, 

 the fraudulent intention which underlay them. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to add that no improvement in the food is effected by the 

 mixing of margarine with good butter. The mixture of butter 

 with foreign fat is practised solely for the purpose of increasing 

 the value of the very cheapest fat by the addition of good butter, so 

 that it may take the place of butter to a large extent, and that at 

 a relatively higher price; or for the purpose of passing it off in the 

 market as butter. For these reasons this practice must be regarded 

 as an attempt to create a new and lucrative industry, at the expense 

 of the dairy industry, and of the less wealthy portion of the public. 



Thus, in the course of time, the manufacture of margarine has 

 departed more and more from the healthy basis on which it was 

 started in 1870, and has threatened to become, to a serious extent, a 

 parasitic industry. It has placed the manufacture of butter at a 

 disadvantage, given an impetus to the perpetration of fraud, and has 

 thrown on the market a large quantity of food, the origin of which 

 is a mystery, and which everyone has a right to regard with distrust. 

 About ten years ago measures were adopted in most countries where 

 dairying was in an advanced state, Holland excepted, to free the 



