151 
Facts and Observations. 
WHAT’S THE USE OE EYES ? — ADULTERATION OE OATS, &c. 
Mr. W. L. Scott, in a paper u On Food, its Adulterations> 
and Methods of Detecting themf lately read by him before the 
Society of Arts, says, “ Our poor horses frequently get 
some five and twenty per cent, of brewers* or distillers* grains 
served out to them in their reputed measure of oats.** Can 
such an obvious adulteration as this ever be attempted, and 
remain undetected by the purchasers for a single moment? 
For, of course, the fraud is always on the part of the seller 
of the oats, no one else being benefited by it. 
With a far greater show of reason, Mr. Scott asserts that 
“the rape-cake given to horses and cows frequently contains 
a quantity of refuse mustard-seed, which often proves dan¬ 
gerous, and sometimes fatal, to the former animal.** It does 
so by the stomach’s action on it giving rise to the production 
of the irritating essential oil of mustard. A similar objection 
holds good in reference to the use of the cake remaining; 
after the pressure of castor-oil seeds, and it is more espe¬ 
cially so with croton-cake, tons upon tons of which have been 
buried, or otherwise disposed of; the drastic, purgative action 
of the oil retained in the cake being well known. 
The cake left after the expression of the fixed oil from 
bitter almonds is likewise known to yield on distillation, a 
highly poisonous oil, containing hydrocyanic acid ; and as in 
the stomach there exist analogous conditions, it may be that 
a like change is effected in that organ by the mutual reaction 
that obtains between the amygdalin, emulsin, and water. 
The essential oil is also readily produced by mastication. 
Our readers will remember Professor Yoelcker’s report on 
cotton-cake, given at pp. 201 and 322, vol. xxxii, and also 
what strange matters were found by him in a mixture sold 
as cattle-food (vol. xxxiii, p. 345). Yet do these residua 
often contain all the necessary flesh-forming and respiratory 
principles, but the mixture of others militates against their 
employment as food. 
Not very long since, we were consulted respecting some 
cheap rice, which had, it was suspected, caused the death of 
several pigs, and we found mingled with it a notable quantity of 
nitrate of potash, the origin of which it was not difficult to 
assign. These facts speak for themselves, and should operate 
as a caution to the purchasers of cheap matters as food for 
animals, the policy of which is always more than questionable. 
