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ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 
Monthly Council, Wednesday, April 7th, 1880. Present, the Duke 
of Bedford, President, in the chair. 
CHEMICAL COMMITTEE. 
Mr. Wells (chairman) presented the quarterly report of the committee, 
and recommended that it be published in the agricultural newspapers. 
Among the cases of interest was the following: 
Poisoning of Animals by Castor Cake. 
Mr. Rowland Taylor , M.R.C.V.S. , Queen Street, Colchester, on the 8th 
December, sent a sample of linseed-cake, stating at the same time that 
he had lost several sheep fed on the cake, and attributed his loss to a 
poison in the cake. 
The subjoined report shows that the cake was adulterated with castor 
bean cake, and extremely poisonous. No information respecting the 
vendor and price of this cake could be obtained. 
Laboratory, 12, Hanover Square, 
December 19 th, 1879. 
Dear Sir, —I have the pleasure of enclosing an analysis of the 
sample of cake which you sent to me a short time ago. The cake, I 
regret to say, is not a genuine linseed-cake, and contains niger cake and 
castor-bean cake, 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 dis¬ 
gusting smell. 
The most serious contamination of the cake is that with castor-cake, 
the presence of which I have unmistakably verified by repeated micro¬ 
scopical 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, I examined 
the meal and the unbroken bits of cake separately, and find castor-bean 
husks in the interior of the unbroken pieces of cake ; it is clear, there¬ 
fore, that in the making of the cake castor-beans have been crushed 
along with the linseed, and that castor-cake did not merely accidentally 
get mixed up 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 expressed bean 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. Pro¬ 
bably less than 1 lb. will cause the death of a sheep.—Believe me, yours 
faithfully, Aug. Voelcker. 
R. Taylor, 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 dis¬ 
coloured unsound old oats, and giving them the appearance of sound new 
oats. 
