Annual Report of the Consulting Chemist for 1878. 349 
reports appear to be duly appreciated, as the following quotation 
from a correspondent's letter shows: — "I am obliged to you for 
your clear and instructive report upon the soil sent to you. You 
have, I think, formed a very just idea of its quality and capa- 
bility." 
With regard to the examinations for poisons, amounting to 
14 in the past season, I may mention that, in the majority of 
cases, I failed to detect any mineral or organic poisons capable 
of being traced by chemical analysis. In one instance, how- 
ever, I readily found arsenic in the contents of the stomachs of a 
number of pigs, which died very suddenly and were suspected 
of having been poisoned. In another case I detected the pre- 
sence of castor-oil beans in a compound feeding-cake, which had 
done serious mischief to sheep and cattle. It is remarkable that, 
whilst the oil contained in castor-oil beans is only a mild pur- 
gative, the expressed seeds are extremely poisonous ; a single 
bean taken internally by an adult person causes vomiting, violent 
purging, and all the symptoms of a powerful drastic poison. 
In former Reports, I have repeatedly directed attention to the 
danger of giving sheep or cattle stale and mouldy feeding-cakes, 
which cakes, I have every reason to believe, are in some cases 
positively poisonous, as pointed out over and over again in my 
periodical reports. 
Notwithstanding the repeated warnings not to give stale 
mouldy cakes and corn to stock, not a season passes in which I 
do not receive for examination half-a-dozen or more such cakes, 
which are alleged to have killed or seriously injured the health 
of sheep or oxen, and in which no ordinary mineral or organic 
poison can be detected by analysis. 
Only a few weeks ago a striking instance of the great danger 
of feeding stock even upon small quantities of mouldy cakes, 
was brought under my notice. 
A member of the Society last month sent me a sample of a 
compound feeding-cake, which was offered to him at 5Z. 13s. Ad. 
per ton, carriage paid. 
The sample was in a fairly good condition, but not over fresh, 
and on analysis was found to have the following composition : — 
Composition of a Sample of Compound Feeding-cake. 
Moisture 8 '25 
Oil 6-80 
•Albuminous compounds 25 "06 
Sugar, starch, and digestible fibre 38 '79 
Woody fibre 8-93 
Mineral matter (ash) 12-17 
100-00 
* Containing nitrogen 4.01 
