256 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



linseed mixed in varying proportions, can be so arranged 

 by the manufacturers as to defy chemical though not micro- 

 scopical analysis. 



Besides these, cakes are adulterated with husks of oats, 

 barley, rice, cocoanut fibre, bran — even the waste bran from 

 tinplate works — and such poisonous seeds as castor and 

 purging flax. Castor oil bean is found in foreign-made 

 linseed cake, especially that which comes from Marseilles. 

 At the latter part a good deal of castor bean is crushed, 

 and the same mill used for linseed, care not being taken to 

 clean the mill out before putting the linseed in.* 



A manufacturer stated in a court of law that his ordinary 

 oil cake consisted of 50 parts of ' til ' or sesame cake, 

 20 parts of bran, and 30 of linseed and linseed sifting. It 

 is to be observed that in such cases the cake is not described 

 as linseed cake but as oil cake, which though technically 

 correct is intended as a deception, and purchased by the 

 unwary as linseed cake. 



Another inducement to adulteration is the ready sale 

 found for cheap cakes, though the farmer ought to know 

 that no linseed cake if pure can be produced and sold under 

 a given price per ton. 



The manufacturer of spurious cakes grinds his material 

 very fine in what is known as a ' Buffein Machine,' the 

 object of this is to increase the difficulties of a naked eye 

 and microscopical analysis. 



Some years ago the late Dr. Voelckert gave directions 

 for a rough examination of feeding cakes, the substance of 

 which is here given. 



In examining a cake reduce it to powder by grating, take 

 half an ounce of the powder and mix it with five ounces of 

 water, and if the cake is good it produces a transparent stiff 

 jelly of agreeable smell and taste. There are some seeds 

 which give a very unpleasant odour to the mass. 



* Dr. J. A. Voelcker, Journal Boyal Agricultural Society, vol. v., 

 part iv., 1894. 



t ' Pure and Mixed Linseed Cakes ' : Journal Boyal Agricultural 

 Society of England, vol. ix., part i., 2nd series. 



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