SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, MAY 28, 18S6. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 

 The election of a president of a college or 

 university, especially in the case of one so vener- 

 able and distinguished as Yale, is an event of 

 great importance. Under the present constitu- 

 tion of our colleges, — and it is by no means so 

 faulty as some persons declare it to be, — the pres- 

 idents not only govern, but they represent their 

 institutions. The president's voice is generally 

 the controlling influence in matters of academic 

 policy and discipline, in financial matters, and 

 in the selection of professors and subordinate 

 officers : therefore his importance and sphere of 

 activity are not limited to his own college, but 

 are co-extensive with the wide boundaries of 

 higher education. This fact has entered, though 

 perhaps unconsciously, into the popular interest 

 which has been manifested as to the choice of the 

 Yale corporation for the succession to President 

 Porter. Undoubtedly the activity of the younger 

 alumni of Yale has served to keep the matter 

 prominently before the public, but we know that 

 in the university world, at all events, considera- 

 tions higher than merely personal ones have been 

 taken into account. 



On Thursday of last week the matter was settled 

 by the election of Rev. Timothy Dwight. professor 

 of sacred literature in the Yale theological school, 

 to the presidency of Yale college. Professor 

 Dwight's election cannot be called unexpected, 

 for the well -informed had some months ago 

 settled upon him as the coming man. But there 

 are elements in the choice which make it a pecul- 

 iarly happy one. In the first place, no college, 

 however progressive, can afford to break entirely 

 with its past, to which, after all, it owes its 

 present. The fact that Professor Dwight gradu- 

 ated from Yale in 1849, and has for more than 

 thirty years been connected with the college as 

 tutor and professor, identifies him sufficiently 

 with the traditional policy of Yale to insure that 

 it will not be inconsiderately abandoned. Then 

 there are elements in the newly chosen president's 

 personal views and opinions which promise that 



No. 173. — 1886. 



Yale will not be left behind in the race of devel- 

 opment. He has carefully considered the details 

 of university policy and organization, and we 

 may be sure that he will guide Yale on the for- 

 ward path as rapidly as the college can travel — 

 but no more rapidly. That is the great point : 

 Yale must grow and develop, but she must not 

 lose her character in the process. Educated men 

 throughout the country look to President Dwight 

 to secure this happy mean. 



IMITATION BUTTER. 



The manufacture of substitutes for butter origi- 

 nated with the production of the so-called oleo- 

 margarine, by the French chemist Mege-Mouriez, 

 from beef -tallow. During the siege of Paris by 

 the Germans, the making of this artificial butter 

 was carried on upon a considerable scale, and was 

 first brought prominently into notice. The manu- 

 facture of oleomargarine commercially, however, 

 did not cease with the necessity which gave birth 

 to it, but with various modifications has increased 

 in amount, until now it is believed to have 

 seriously damaged the dairy interests of the 

 country ; and congress is being urged to pass a 

 bill, which, under the guise of a revenue law, is 

 really a prohibition law. The agitation has at- 

 tracted such general attention, both from dairy- 

 men and from consumers of butter, and so much 

 misrepresentation and flaming rhetoric have been 

 called forth, that it may be worth while to con- 

 sider calmly what are the facts in the case. 



Process of manufacture. — Although numerous 

 patents have been taken out for the manufacture 

 of imitation butter, and a great variety of ma- 

 terials have been named in the specifications, the 

 process as now conducted is comparatively simple. 

 The raw materials are beef -tallow, leaf-lard, and 

 the best quality of butter, together with small 

 amounts of milk or cream and of butter-color. 



From the beef -tallow is prepared the oleo- 

 margarine oil of Mege. The caul fat of freshly 

 killed beeves is, after thorough washing, first in 

 tepid and then in iced water, allowed to hang in a 

 cold room until thoroughly cold. It is then ren- 

 dered at a temperature between 130° and 175° F. 

 The resulting oil is allowed to cool slowly until 

 a considerable portion of the stearine and palmi- 

 tine have crystallized out, and the pasty mass is 

 then subjected to hydraulic pressure. The still 

 fluid portion (about two-thirds of the whole) flows 



