520 
PHARMACEUTICAL MEETING. 
In reply to a question from the Chairman, Mr. Umney said, he thought an 
acid containing 5 per cent, would be strong enough for use in medicine. 
Dr. Attfield thought that if an acid of the strength indicated in the Phar¬ 
macopoeia was really required, it would be necessary to obtain it by passing the 
pure gas into water, and not the two gases resulting from the action of char¬ 
coal on sulphuric acid. 
NOTE ON MUSTAKD OIL-CAKE. 
Professor Attfield said he had no other note written, but there was one 
subject to which be could allude to occupy the remaining few minutes of their 
time, and especially as he saw on the table some specimens of oil-cake. He did 
not know under what circumstances and conditions these specimens had been 
placed upon the table; apparently they were good samples of linseed-oil and 
cotton-seed cake. A short time ago he was asked by a pharmaceutist to analyse 
two samples of oil-cake. It appeared that a farmer in the country had been 
supplied by contract with a large quantity of seed-cake, and had purchased it 
as genuine linseed-cake ; but he was dissatisfied with its appearance, and also 
with its results on his cattle, and he accordingly had it examined. Now, a 
mere glance at it showed him (Dr. Attfield) that the cake the farmer had been 
using was not all, nor even a large portion of it, linseed-cake, but consisted of 
what evidently was rape-cake and mustard-cake. In September last he had the 
opportunity of going over Colman’s mustard-mills at Norwich, and he was 
presented by Mr. Colman with a sample of the cake produced by pressing the 
husks of the seeds with great force whilst they were hot. The oil from the 
seed ran away, was collected and sold, and the residue was mustard-cake. The 
appearance of this was different from that of linseed-cake, and any one ac¬ 
customed to these articles would recognize it at once. He asked Mr. Colman 
whether the mustard-cake was sold for cattle-food ; he replied that it was not, 
and that persons who knew anything about it would not buy it, as it produced 
irritating effects on the animals ; that therefore they were obliged to sell it for 
manure. The price of the genuine linseed-cake was about £12. 10s. or £13 
per ton; of rape-cake about £6. 10s. or £7 per ton ; and of the mustard-cake 
about £4. 10s. or £5 per ton,—so that there was a strong inducement for adul¬ 
terating the superior article. He drew attention to this subject in order that » 
that point might be noticed, and also to give an analysis of mustard-cake. So 
far as he knew, no analyses of it had been published, although several had been 
published regarding rape- and cotton-seed. Mustard-cake did not differ very 
much, so far as an ordinary analysis indicated, from the other cakes. It con¬ 
tained 11 per cent, of water,—that was not an unusual quantity; in fact, when 
recently taken from the mill, all cakes contained 13 or 14 per cent, of water. 
There was 8 per cent, of ash, which was not very high,—linseed-cakes often con¬ 
tained about 5 per cent.; then there was 12^ per cent, of fibrous matter, and 
that, too, was about the percentage ordinarily found in linseed-cake. There 
was next 14 per cent, of oil: samples of rape-cake frequently contained 8 
or 9 per cent, of oil; and the quantity found in linseed-cake was higher than 
that. Oil was an important constituent of cake, and there should be 11 or 12, 
or even more, per cent, in liuseed-cake. Then there was the albuminoid mat¬ 
ter, the vegetable albumen, which was found by estimating the nitrogen, and 
multiplying that by the number which should express albumen. There was 
16| per cent, of nitrogen in albumen, so that they could easily estimate the 
amount of flesh-forming matter—in contradistinction to that which contributed 
to animal heat. The albuminoid matter present was 3T7 per cent., which was 
