i6. A Chemical Examination of the Butter-fat of the 



Indian Buffalo. 



By E. R. Watson, Monohar Gupta, Holder of the 



Agricultural Diploma, Bengal Government ; and 



Satish Chandra Ganguli, M.A. 



In a preliminary note on this subject (Journ. Asiatic Soc. 

 Bengal, Vol. II, pp. 293—297) one of us recorded analytical 

 figures which seemed to show that in Indian buffalo butter- fat 

 the volatile fatty acids were almost entirely butyric. It was 

 pointed out that, if this were confirmed, it .would serve as a 

 method for distinguishing buffalo butter-fat from ordinary cow 

 butter- fat, even if the former were mixed with some other 

 oil or fat for the purpose of lowering the percentage of volatile 

 fatty acids. This point has been further investigated, but this 

 further examination has not confirmed the preliminary result. 

 In fact, there can now be no doubt that the relative propor- 

 tions of butyric and caproic acids are practically the same in 

 the Indian buffalo butter-fat and in that of the ordinary cow. 



Estimation of the ratio of butyric and caproic acids by Hen- 

 riques' Process (Journ. Chem. Soc. ,1899, abs. 258).— In this process 

 the alkalimetric value of the volatile fatty acids is determined 

 and also the weight of their potassium salts. Henriques ex- 

 pressed his results as the mean molecular weight of the volatile 

 acids. It was by this method that the already accorded result 

 (Watson, loc. cit.) — which is now seen to have been incorrect 

 was obtained. The following: result- have now been ob- 

 tained: 



Description of butter-fat. Mean mol. weight of 



volatile acids. 



Fresh buffalo butter-fat (10-7-06) .. 102 



Ditto (20-11-06) 



Ditto (17-1-07) 



Old buffalo butter-fat, 10 



months' old, collected (6 2-06) . . 99 



Danish butter-fat . . - . 106 



Mean for European cows (Henriques) 88*3 — 99*8 



These results show that the mean molecular weight for the 

 volatile acids of Indian buffalo butter-fat lies within the same 

 limits as in the case of the ordinary European cow. 



