302 Quarterly Reports of the Chemical Committee. 
with castor-bean cake, and extremely poisonous. No informa- 
tion respecting the vendor and price of this cake could be 
obtained. 
" Laboratory, 12, Hanover Square, 
December 19tli, 1879. 
"Dear Sir, — I have the pleasure of enclosing an analysis of the sample of 
cake which you sfiit to me a short time ago. The cake, I regret to say, is 
not a genuine linseed-cake, and contains niger-cake and castor-hean calce, and 
in my judgment is rank poison to sheep or cattle. It has a foul smell like 
that of rotten tea-leaves and similar vegetable substances, and contains dark- 
coloured bits of vegetable matter, not found in genuine linseed-cake. Unlike 
good linseed-cake, it does not get nearly as mucilaginous when mixed in a 
powdered state with water as linseed-cake of fair average quality, and it has 
a nasty taste and disgusting smell. 
" The most serious contamination of the cake is that with castor-cake, the 
presence of which I have unmistakably verified by repeated microscopical 
observations. I have also found castor-cake in the meal or powdered cake 
which accompanied the bits of cake you sent me, and as far as I can judge the 
powdered cake is of the same character as the unbroken cake. Castor-cake 
might have been accidentally mixed with linseed-cake in shipping, in which 
case the powdered cake would contain castor-cake powder, whilst the linseed- 
cake itself might be free from castor. As the determination of this point is 
of importance, 1 examined the meal and the unbroken bits of cake separately, 
and I find castor-bean husks in the interior of the unbroken pieces of cake ; 
it is clear, therefore, that in the making of the cake castor-beans have been 
crushed along with the linseed, and that castor-cake did not merely acci- 
dentally get mixed u]3 with linseed-cake in the shipping. 
" My experience with regard to castor-bean cake is that, whilst castor-oil, 
as you well know, is a purgative which may be given to man or beast in 
considerable quantities, the pressed bean-cake is a most virulent irritating 
poison. A single bean is enough to cause vomiting, purging, and utter 
prostration, from which the patient does not recover for days. I have, 
therefore, no hesitation in declaring the cake as very poisonous. Probably 
less than 1 lb. will cause the death of a sheep. — Believe me, yours faithfully, 
" Aug. Voelcker. 
" E. Tayler, Esq." 
Dr. Voelcker also directed attention to several samples of oats 
which had been sent to him for examination, and which he 
found had been subjected to sulphur-fumes with a view of 
bleaching or brightening discoloured unsound old oats, and 
giving them the appearance of sound new oats. 
June 1880. 
1. A sample of linseed-cake was sent for analysis by Mr. 
Arthur Paine, Lashbrooke, Henley-on-Thames, who ordered, 
on the 28th February, 1880, two tons of best linseed-cake. The 
delivery order described it (inferentially) as their first quality, 
but it was invoiced simply as linseed-cake, without the quali- 
fication "pure," or "best," at 12/. a ton, by the manufacturers of 
the cake. 
