506 FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 



the expenses of I lie process, besides the loss which the consignee 

 irom the delay. Might not this rigid scrutiny be equally well applied 

 to some of the adulterated and falsified foreign products which are 

 landed at American ports? 



It is not within the scope of this report to consider whether either 

 lard or olive oil, when adulterated with cottonseed, is necessarily un- 

 wholesome. The vital fact is that in paying from 40 to 50 cents per 

 kilogram and 30 per cent, duty on American cottonseed as olive oil, the 

 people of the United States are submitting to a wholesale fraud, the 

 proportions of which are increasing year by year. 



The interest of both the United States and France will be subserved 

 when the reckless tampering with the integrity of commerce is sys- 

 tematically suppressed. As long as our people will accept and pay for 

 adulterated oils they will continue to flood and dominate the market. 

 The remedy must be applied at our ports of entry. 



Mr. David Wesson* makes the following comments in regard to 

 Brulle's and other methods of testing for cotton seed oil : 



u We have worked some with the chloride of gold test and find it will 

 give a reduction with cottonseed oil, free fatty acids, and old rancid 

 lard. It gives no reduction with pure fresh lard containing less than 1 

 per cent, of free acid. 



11 We find the Brulle test is unaffected by free acid or rancidity. We 

 have tried the Bechi test on some highly oxydized cotton oil and find 

 it gives no reduction whatever; while with lard oil made from old lard 

 considerable reduction can be obtained." 



COCOA-NUT OIL AS AN ADULTERANT OF LARD. 



It is probable that in this country lard is never adulterated with co- 

 coa-nut oil for commercial purposes. Alleut speaks of the use of cocoa- 

 nut oil as an adulterant of lard. In " The Analyst," October, 1888, 

 page 89, he says he is unable to trace the authority on which the st;ito- 

 ment was made. He has, however, in his own experience found one 

 sample of lard which was adulterated with cocoa-nut oil. This lard 

 gave the following numbers on analysis : 



Specific gravity at 99 8666 



Iodine absorption, percent 157.4 



Saponification equivalent 265.2 



N 



,-Q alkali for the distillate from 2 grams . . 3. 3cc. 



The volatile acids contained a notable proportion of soluble acids of 

 sparing solubility in water, and had the characteristic odor of the dis- 

 tillate from cocoa-nut oil. The sample was certified to contain 33 per 

 cent, of the adulterant. The most accurate determination of the cocoa- 

 nut oil is obtained from the saponification equivalent. Mr. Allen gires 



* Letter of March 4, 1689. 



t Column-rial Organic Analysis Vol. >J, p. 142. 



