502 FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



CHLORIDE OF GOLD AS A TEST FOR COTTON OIL. 



Hirscbsohn* has recommended the use of aurou chloride for the de- 

 tection of cotton oil. The reagent is used as follows : 



Dissolve one gram of gold chloride in 200cc of chloroform. To 3 to 

 5cc of the oil add C to 10 drops of the re-agent and heat for twenty 

 minutes. Cotton oil will give a beautiful red color. 



David Wesson t finds that free fatty acids interfere with the delicacy 

 of the reaction, and also rancid lard. 



Free acids and rancid lard, on the other hand, do not afi'ect the proc- 

 ess of Brulle. 



Moerkij: has also reported results of this test. 



I have tried the reaction of Hirschsohn, and found the purple color 

 produced quite characteristic; but even pure lards give a trace of color, 

 which must not be confounded with the deep coloration produced by 

 cotton oil. 



ERULLE'S METHOD OF DETECTING ADULTERATIONS IN OLIVE OIL. 



The United States consul (Mr. Mason) at Marseilles writes as follows: 

 Souttieru France has of late years suffered seriously from the adul- 

 teration, or rather the artificial fabrication, of her two principal agri- 

 cultural products, wine and olive oil. During the recent season of 

 scanty vintages there has grown up in this district an immense manu- 

 facture of "piquettes" or raisin wines, which are made by soaking in 

 water, until fermentation takes place, the cheap dried grapes which are 

 imported in such quantifies from the Grecian Archipelago and Turkey. 

 These substitutes have so far replaced the real but more costly French 

 wines that now since the replanted vineyards begin to yield more 

 abundantly the genuine ordinary wines command only prices which 

 hardly repay the cost of culture. The consumption of vinous beverages 

 among the laboring classes has not diminished, but the cheaper substi- 

 tute has crowded out the real article, and in behalf of the agricultural 

 class it is proposed to remedy this unnatural difficulty by putting a 

 heavy import duty upon dried grapes from the Levant. 



With olive oil the case is similar, but even worse. Only a small por- 

 tion of France is adapted to olive culture, the entire available district 

 being a strip of dry country less than 20 miles wide along the Mediter- 

 ranean coast. The tree is of slow growth, and is, moreover, beset by 

 numerous insects and diseases, which, in addition to unfavorable phases 

 of weather, render the yearly olive crop more or less uncertain. Any 

 serious reduction in the annual consumption of olive oil is sullieient to 



*Pharmaceuti9he Zeitschrift fUr Russian*!, 1S88, j>. 721, and American Journal <>f 

 Pharmacy, January, 1889, p. 21?. 

 t Letter February 10, 188'J. 



! American Journal of Pharmacy, February, 1 *.-.!, p. <'>"i. 

 $Tlio Grocer and Oil Trade Review, February 2, 1889. 



