258 VETEEINAEY HYGIENE 



' pure linseed cake,' and that any cake not pure must be 

 sold simply as ' oil cake.' The same authority* describes 

 a new method of adulterating decorticated cotton cake, viz., 

 by removing the husk, which is then finely ground up and 

 put back again into the meal, the cake being sold as 

 decorticated. 



The adulteration is difficult to detect ; the meal should 

 be washed in water, and the husk left behind is much finer 

 in size, regular, and more angular in shape, than the husk 

 of genuine decorticated cake which has accidentally missed 

 removal. 



For the microscopical examination of cakes the examiner 

 if not familiar with the appearance of the various starches, 

 husks, grains, seeds, etc., should prepare specimens of the 

 same, and use them for comparison with the cakes under 

 inspection. 



Diseases produced hy Cake. — All cakes should be in good 

 condition, sound, fresh, free from smell and mouldiness. 

 Sourness and mouldiness are often the results of the cake 

 not being thoroughly dried before being stored, in conse- 

 quence of which it heats. Sourness may also be caused by 

 the use of seeds which have become rancid, and in either 

 case such cake is unfit for food. 



The husks of undecorticated cotton cake were such a 

 source of stomach and intestinal trouble, that methods 

 had to be adopted to get rid of them ; it was this led to the 

 creation of the decorticated cake which possesses so many 

 advantages. 



Stomach and intestinal irritation may also be caused by 

 the woolly masses and stiff hairs found in impure specimens 

 of ground-nut cake, and in Bombay undecorticated cotton 

 cake. The poisonous properties of beech-nut cake when 

 given to horses has previously been alluded to (p. 193). 



Within recent years cake as a carrier of infection has 



been more than suspected. Anthrax has been traced to 



this source, the germs of the disease having contaminated 



the linseed before manufacture. Such contamination is 



* Journal Boyal AgricuHural Society, vol, Ixiii., 1901. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



