18 THE OLIVE 



Crude cotton seed oil is a thick fluid of a reddish or dirtv vellow 

 color, and if left standing ^yill deposit a slimy sediment. For years 

 the cotton seed oil refiners encountered verv o'reat difficulty in dis- 



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posing of tliis coloring matter, but this impediment is now overcome 

 in the followino; manner. To an iron tank charo-ed with ten tons of 

 crude cotton seed oil, is added thirtv hundred weio'ht of caustic soda 

 lye. Saponification ensues, and the coloring matter is precipitated. 

 No argument can convince the impartial mind that an article so 

 prepared is fit food for the human stomach. There are many other 

 adulterants which are used in unison with cotton seed oil, such as 

 sesame, ])alni nuts, hemp, cupra or sunflower, and a host of others 

 of strange origin. It is not safe to say that these supposititious co- 

 mestibles are alwavs innocuous. Manv an oil retains the subtle 

 qualities of the ])lant which j^roduced it, and it may be that obscure 

 maladies which puzzle the doctor are not unfrequently caused by 

 the detestable practice of sup])lying for the genuine article some- 

 thing which looks sufficiently like it to mislead, and, it may be, poi- 

 son the hapless public. A simple and homely test for the detection 

 of adulteration is the heating of oil until it smokes, in some small 

 vessel. The smell of olive oil while su^'o'estive of the kitchen and 

 cookerv is not at all disa^i-eeable, while anv counterfeit oil, and es- 

 pecially cotton seed oil, is exceedingly offensive to the nostrils. If 

 placed in a refrigerator, pure olive oil will remain unchanged, or at 

 most throw down a little palmatin, while adulterated oil will thicken 

 and congeal. The persistent adulteration of olive oil will bear its legit- 

 imate fruit ; the markets where the world has sought its supply here- 

 tofore will become discredited, their wares will no longer meet with 

 ready sale in the face of free supplies of the pure article from Cali- 

 fornia and Australia. 



Gasparin makes some interesting calculations as to the consump- 

 tion of oil in France. In Provence a laborer consumes an average 

 of nine pounds per annum, and the same ratio holds good in Paris. 



