42 
Pure and Mixed Linseed- Cakes. 
IV. Remarks on the Causes which render Feeding-Cakes 
EITHER decidedly POISONOUS, OR MORE OR LESS INJURIOUS 
TO THE Health of Animals. 
Decidedly poisonous substances, as a rule, do not often occur 
in .linseed-cake, and it is rather by accident or carelessness than 
by design that cakes become contaminated with poisonous ingre- 
dients. Besides curcas and castor-oil-beans, I have not found in 
linseed-cake any other decidedly injurious ingredient; in rape- 
cake, however, I may mention that black or wild mustard fre- 
quently occurs in so large a proportion as to render it quite unfit 
lor feeding purposes. 
As far as 1 know, castor-oil-beans are not crushed in England, 
which circumstance accounts for the fact that 1 have never found 
castor-beans in English linseed-cake. Castor-oil is principally 
produced in India, and to some extent also at Marseilles, and I 
have found castor-cake both in Bombay and Marseilles linseed- 
cake. In mills where both linseed and castor-oil beans are 
crushed, it occasionally happens that through the carelessness of 
l\\e workmen, the stores of linseed in part get mixed up with 
. some castor-oil-beans. In consequence of the partial admixture 
of the linseed with castor-oil-beans, the cake from the mixed 
seed is rendered more or less injurious, whilst the bulk made 
from linseed free from castor-oil-beans is perfectly wholesome. 
Under these circumstances the cakes shipped to England, pro- 
bably in nine cases out of ten turn out to be wholesome, whilst, 
it may be, the tenth parcel from the same shipment is more or 
less contaminated with castor- bean- cake. The farmer who, 
unfortunately, is supplied with such a mixed lot, experiencing 
injury to his stock, then claims compensation for the damage 
done by the use of the cake, which he bought as genuine linseed- 
cake. In resisting the claims, the dealer who supplied the cake 
finds no difficulty in pointing out a number of customers who 
express themselves to be perfectly satisfied with the quality or 
the cake, which he can prove to have been delivered to them 
from the same cargo from which the cake alleged to be poi- 
sonous was sold. In this way disputes originate, which finally 
are brought into Court ; trustworthy evidence is given by the 
plaintiff's witnesses, in proof of the poisonous character of the 
cake, and equally reliable witnesses on the defendant's part 
declare the same cake to have proved in practice perfectly 
wholesome and of excellent quality ; and the bewildered jury find 
no little difficulty in agreeing upon a verdict. However, if the 
plaintiff would take the precaution to send the suspected cake to 
an analytical chemist or microscopist, well experienced in cake 
examinations, convincing evidence would be forthcoming in 
