Pure and Mixed Linseed- Cakes. 
31 
The oil contained in these beans is a most violent purgative, 
for 10 to 12 drops are sufficient to produce all the effect of a 
powerful dose of a drastic medicine, and only a few beans have 
to be swallowed to kill a strong healthy man. Curcas-cake, 
or the residue from the oil-presses, usually contains from 9 to 
11 per cent, of oil, and of course is extremely poisonous, and 
only fit to be used as a manure. 
In the course of my experience I have met with about half a 
dozen instances in which cake, sold as pure linseed-cake, was 
adulterated with curcas beans, which, although present in appa- 
rently but small quantities, nevertheless rendered the cake 
poisonous. Of all the materials which get mixed up with 
linseed-cake, either through culpable carelessness or ignorant 
cupidity, curcas-cake is the most poisonous matter with which I 
have become acquainted. 
21. Locust or Carob-Beans. — Carob or locust-beans, or St. 
John's bread, are the seed-pods of the locust-tree (^Ceratonia 
Siliqua). Dried and ground into meal, they form a favourite 
material for manufacturing cattle-food and compound cakes, 
and for adulterating linseed-cakes. 
Locust-meal, as will be seen by the following analyses of three 
samples analysed in my laboratory, contains in round numbers 
fully half its weight of sugar, and in consequence is very pala- 
table and much liked by horses, sheep, and cattle. 
Table X. — Compositiox of Locust of Cakob-Bean-meai.. 
No. 1. 
No. 2. 
No. 3. 
17-U 
12-61 
14-22 
Oil 
1-19 
1-08 
•96 
.51-42 
50*30 
54-07 
13-75 
20- 13 
14-41 
7-50 
5-87 
7 - 72 
6-01 
7-14 
5-88 
3-02 
2-87 
2-74 
100-00 
100-00 
loo-co 
1-20 
•94 
1-25 
In addition to the constituents mentioned in the preceding 
analyses, carob-beans contain variable quantities of butyric acid, 
which impart to the crushed beans or meal a peculiar flavour. 
This meal is deficient in albuminous compounds, and for 
this reason it is desirable not to feed cattle too freely upon 
