LEntered at the Posi-Offlce of New York, N. V., as SecODd-Class Matter.] 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Eighth Year. 

 Vol. XVI. No. 393. 



NEW YORK, August 8, 1890. 



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 $3.50 Per Year, in Advance. 



BUTTER AND OLEOMARGARINE. 



The form and character of the fats employed as articles 

 of food vary from the raw and solid fats of the whale and 

 seal, eaten by the inhabitants of exceedingly cold climates, 

 to the raw and liquid fats, mostly of vegetable origin, con- 

 sumed in tropical climates. In temperate climates the form, 

 whether solid or liquid, of animal or vegetable origin, is a 

 matter of education. 



The fats present to the animal economy one of the most 

 important functions of food, that of supplying heat and 

 energy. " Ten grains of butter, when burnt in the body, 

 produce heat sufficient to raise 18.68 pounds of water 1° F., 

 which is equal to raising 14,421 pounds 1 foot high." ' 



The potential energy ot fats is greater than that of nearly 

 all other articles of food. According to Dr. Rubner, as 

 quoted by Professor Atwater,' one gram of fat yields 9.3 

 calories, or 14.2 foot-tons; that is to say, "when a gram 

 (one twenty-eighth of an ounce) of fat, be it the fat of the 

 food or body-fat, is consumed in the body, it will, if its 

 potential energy be all transformed into heat, yield enough 

 to warm a kilogram of water 9.3° of the Centigrade ther- 

 mometer, or, if it be transformed into mechanical energy 

 such as the steam-engine or the muscles use to do their 

 work, it will furnish as much as would raise 1 ton 14.2 feet, 

 or 14.2 tons 1 foot." 



A gram of proteine, myosin (lean) ot meat, white of egg, 

 caseine (curd) of milk, gluten of wheat, etc., or of carbo- 

 hydrates, starch and sugar, yields 4.1 calories, or 6.3 foot- 

 tons, — less than half as much energy as an equal quantity of 

 fat. Of course, only a small portion of the whole energy is 

 made available for external muscular work : the rest is 

 transformed into heat. Professor von Gohren,' as the 

 result of elaborate computation, reckons that a horse may 

 transform 32 per cent, an ox may transform 43 per cent, a 

 man may transform 53 per cent, of the whole potential 

 energy of his food into energy for mechanical work. 



In regard to the relative digestibility of butter and oleo- 

 margarine, see the article on " Foods and Food Adulterants," 

 in Science of April 11, 1890, p. 229. 



Butter was unknown to the ancient Greeks, — at least, no 

 reference is made to it by Homer or Aristotle, — and even to 

 this day is a great rarity in Mexico and South America and 

 in certain portions of China. Herodotus and Hippocrates 

 described, in the fifth century B. C, the butter which the 

 Scythians obtained from mare's milk by violent agitation, 



> Foods, E. Smith (New York, 1874), p. 136. 



2 Century, vol. xxxiv., p. 401. 



s Naturgesetze der Fiitterung, 1872, pp. 372-378. 



and Dioscorides states that the best butter is made from 

 sheep's and goat's milk. It was not in common use in 

 England until after the fourteenth century. It is less 

 frequently eaten by barbarous than by civilized nations. 

 It is made from milk, chiefly from that of the cow. That 

 from the bison is employed in Egypt and India, and that 

 from the goat in other countries. 



Milk is a natural emulsion, in which the globules of fat 

 exist in a very minute state of division. Their usual size 

 is YWW15 "f an inch, but varies with the nature of the food 

 used ; and they are scattered through the whole substance 

 as long as the fluid is in motion, but, when it is allowed to 

 rest, these globules coalesce, and form cream. 



The flavor of the butter differs according to the animal 

 from which the milk is derived, and varies with the nature 

 of the food, turnips and leeks imparting a peculiar strong 

 taste. The color varies likewise with the animal and its 

 food, from nearly white to very yellow. To give butter 

 a uniform tint, the addition of annotto or other coloring- 

 matter is very often resorted to. 



The adulteration of butter with "additional coloring- 

 matter" is legalized by the Oleomargarine Law, — although 

 such addition be " intended fraudulently to conceal its in- 

 ferior quality," to use the language of the British Sale of 

 Food and Drugs Act, 1875, — and is a practice which should 

 be more honored in the breach than in the observance than 

 it usually is. While the coloring-matters used are harmless 

 for the most part, their use tends to deceive the purchaser 

 into supposing that a white, winter, is a yellow, spring, or 

 Jersey butter. 



The manufacture of butter has for its object the further 

 coalescing of the fat-globules contained in the milk, and 

 depends on mechanical means for its accomplishment. But- 

 ter made from whole milk, or scalded cream, contains more 

 caseine (curd) than if made from cream in the ordinary way. 

 This is important as not only affecting its taste, but also its 

 keeping properties; for caseine, being a nitrogenous body, 

 is liable to undergo fermentation, in which case the butter 

 becomes decayed or rancid. When special pains are taken 

 to "work the butter" thoroughly, thus more effectually 

 getting rid of the water and buttermilk, it keeps for a much 

 longer period in a " sweet " condition. The use of from 1 

 to 10 per cent of salt, and also saltpetre, as a preservative is 

 quite common. 



Ghee, which is so extensively used by the natives of India, 

 is prepared from bison's milk. The milk is boiled, cooled, a 

 little sour milk added, churned, hot water added, and in 

 about an hour butter is produced. The butter is allowed to 



