September 9 , 1871 .] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
213 
Bristol the rate was sixpence for linseed and threepence 
for linseed-meal. The quantity used in Bristol he would 
hack against any place. With regard to adulteration, 
linseed cake was awfully adulterated. Ho had no hesita¬ 
tion in saying, from his experience of analytical work, 
that it was adulterated to the extent of at least fifteen ' 
per cent. 
Mr. Bell said that there was more linseed imported 
into Hull than into any other town in England, and 
perhaps there was more adulteration there. Linseed 
cake was frequently adulterated with buffum. He had 
great objection to using linseed meal on account of that. 
With regard to crushed linseed, his experience told him 
that it was the best. He bought it in small quantities, 
and it kept its properties to the last. 
Mr. Deane said that for a long portion of the time 
ho had been in business he had been in the habit of 
using the ordinary ground cake, believing it to be the 
thing that was intended to be used, but a few years ago 
a curious circumstance occurred. He gave to a person, 
for a domestic purpose, some llnseed-meal, and in the 
course of some days he was told that where any portion 
of the poultice had fallen on the patient it produced 
a blister. On making inquiry into the subject, and a 
careful examination by the microscope, he found that 
the mischief arose, as he believed, through the mixture 
of Cruciferous seeds which the linseed contained. Pro¬ 
bably these were not seeds put in intentionally, but arose 
from careless culture and careless dressing. They formed 
part of the crop, and had been sent out without regard 
to consequences, because they added to the bulk. He 
had been in the habit for many years of using crushed 
linseed, taking care to have it in such quantities that it 
would not spoil by keeping. It was a curious circum¬ 
stance with regard to the seeds grown in some parts of 
Europe, that they made the finest oil for painters, 
provided they were not contaminated by those wild 
seeds. From all he knew about linseed, he thought it 
should make all chemists very careful as to what kind of 
linseed they made use of. He was quite satisfied that if 
the linseed-cake was genuine—ground cake, free from 
contamination—it made an excellent poultice and kept 
better than the other. But as there was difficulty in 
getting that, it was better to get the crushed linseed from j 
a respectable house rather than run the risk of getting 
meal from cake, the history of which they knew nothing j 
about. 
Mr. Atkins said that he could testify to the large 
amount of meal consumed in the West of England. 
The ordinary linseed-meal or crushed cake cost about ’ 
14s. per cwt., and the crushed linseed about 32s. The | 
retail price at Salisbury was 4 d. for linseed-meal and 6cl. 1 
for linseed, whole and crushed. 
Mr. Collins said, with regard to the linseed they 
had from India, that there was great carelessness shown 
in the docks. They would find rice-seeds and all other 
kinds of seeds amongst it; and very often when the 
men were turning the sacks the seeds fell down and were 
freely mixed. Very often the bags were made so loose 
in texture, that various kinds of seeds fell through and 
mixed with the linseed. That was one of the reasons j 
why the Indian seed was so much complained of through ; 
the packing in the ship’s hold. 
Mr. Bottle said he had found difficulty in getting the i 
proper linseed meal. He had discarded it and purchased 
crushed linseed. 
Mr. Mackay said that the pharmacist had no reason 
to go away to the West of England in order to get a | 
really good linseed-meal. Some years ago he was a good | 
deal bothered about this article. It was not unlike the ; 
American meal, and the dreadful thing was it had this ! 
peculiarity, that it was so hard that the ordinary means | 
of making it into a poultice were unsuccessful, and the j 
hardness of the particles caused a great deal of trouble, j 
annoyance, irritation and even pain. He tried many | 
places; he even went to England, and the experiences j 
he had were exceedingly unsatisfactory, until he fell on 
crushers of seed not far from Edinburgh, Wacklin, Rud¬ 
dock, and Co., and from experience he could say that 
their linseed-meal was very good, and o per cent, cheaper 
than in some other places. If pharmacists applied to 
that firm for a sample of their linseed-meal, he had no 
doubt that they would be satisfied. 
Mr. Hanbury said that during his business experience 
in London, the firm with which he was connected used 
to keep the crushed linseed and the powdered cake, but 
the latter was scarcely ever required. 
Mr. Frazer said that in Glasgow, considerably above 
twenty years ago, the crushed seed was first brought 
under his notice by a Liverpool house. He found it. 
to bo a genuine article and at once introduced it. He 
had since then ceased to keep the article made from the 
cake ; and, notwithstanding its higher price, had found 
the public gave the crushed seed a most decided pre¬ 
ference. 
Mr. Greenish considered that the objection urged 
against “ crushed linseed,” that it oxidized very rapidly, 
was met by the sample on the table, from which a por¬ 
tion of the oil had been expressed, and in that condition, 
if properly kept, it would remain good for a reasonable 
length of time. As to Mr. Collins’s remark with re¬ 
ference to admixture at the docks, all ho could say was 
that it had not come under his notice. 
Mr. Collins stated that in the docks he had seen it 
to a considerable extent. 
A Member said that he thought they would like to 
know the results of the crushing of the seeds, with infer¬ 
ence to the amount of oil that was given off by the 
different seeds which came from the various countries. 
If these had been given, the paper would have been more 
valuable. There was an old article of domestic use 
called carron oil. Could any member inform him whether 
linseed-oil had been used for the manufacture of that ? 
It would evidently affect the carron oil if it. con¬ 
tained many of these seeds. It was still much in use 
and more preferred in domestic use than the finer 
article, olive oil. 
Mr. Deane said that linseed-oil made a sort of paint,, 
olive-oil did not. 
Mr. Greenish, in reply, said the average quantity 
of oil in linseed was from 2o to 30 per cent., and pro¬ 
bably 10 per cent, of that would be pressed out in 
making the farina. With reference to ,the quantity ot 
oil from different seeds, those from Bombay and Cal¬ 
cutta yielded a much larger quantity than the Russian 
seed, but any reference to this point would involve a 
larger subject and have no practical bearing on the 
present question. 
Dr. Attfield read a paper on 
The Tincture Press. 
BY C. A. STAPLES. 
The tincture press is one of the most important imple¬ 
ments in the pharmaceutical laboratory. Without its 
judicious use, not only would the loss ot tincture be very 
great in quantity but in quality also, the latter portion 
of which is obtained by the press being the richest in 
extractive matter. Indeed, the preparation does not 
fairly represent the Pharmacopoeia article until it has 
been thoroughly expressed, and the products mixed to¬ 
gether. Such being the value and importance of the 
tincture press, I have often felt surprised that so little 
improvement has been made in it. The workmanship 
has certainly been brought to a degree of. perfection 
that cannot fail to command our highest admiration, but 
the faults remain. The first defect that strikes the in¬ 
telligent mechanician is the severe torsion ot the sciev . 
The implement is usually constructed with a powerful 
cast-iron frame, in which the female screw is fixed, the- 
