132        DETECTING  ADULTERATION  OF  OLIVE  OIL,  ETC. 
numerous  crystals,  which,  under  the  microscope,  appear  as  rec- 
tangular plates.  These  crystals  are  soluble  in  water  and  al- 
cohol, insoluble  in  ether  ;  they  react  as  follows  : — with  nitrate 
of  silver,  a  white  magma,  soon  resolved  into  silky  needles  of 
double  nitrate  of  silver  and  kreatinine  ;  with  syrupy  chloride  of 
zinc,  small  masses,  which,  examined  under  the  microscope,  ap- 
pear as  fine  needles  in  radiating  groups  ;  these  crystals  are  double 
chloride  of  zinc  and  kreatinine ;  with  recently  precipitated 
binoxide  of  mercury,  at  ebullition,  metallic  mercury.  The 
kreatinine  thus  obtained  is  far  from  pure.  Kreatinine  (CgH^Ng 
O2)  occurs  in  the  putrified  whey  from  the  dehydration  of  the 
kreatine  (CgHgNgO^  2H0)  already  present  in  the  milk.  Urine, 
which  has  been  exposed  to  the  air  for  some  weeks,  contains  no 
longer  kreatine,  but  only  kreatinine.  It  would  thus  seem  that 
the  small  quantity  of  kreatinine  found  in  beef  tea  and  recent 
urine  indicates  an  alteration,  inappreciable,  one  may  add,  by 
other  means.  Kreatine  is,  in  fact,  much  more  often  found  in 
fresh  animal  substances  than  kreatinine.  The  reason  that 
kreatine  has  not  been  found  in  milk  is  probably  the  great  amount 
of  other  materials  present  with  it ;  and  only  when  the  lactine 
has  been  destroyed  by  fermentation  and  putrefaction,  it  becomes 
easy  to  detect  in  the  whey  the  derivative  kreatinine.  The  de- 
tection of  a  substance  hitherto  considered  excrementitious  in 
milk  is  worthy  of  remark.  A  further  analogy  between  milk, 
blood,  aiid  meat,  is  also  established. — Paris  Corr.  Chem.  News^ 
London,  Jan.  1,  1869. 
DETECTING  THE  ADULTERATION  OF  OLIVE  AND  SWEET 
ALMOND  OILS. 
Lipowitz  has  recommended  the  use  of  hypochlorite  of  lime, 
bleaching  powder,  as  a  means  of  detecting  the  adulteration  of 
olive  and  also  of  sweet  almond  oil  with  the  oil  of  poppy  seed 
(Mohnbi).  When  eight  parts  of  either  olive  oil  or  oil  of  sweet 
almonds  is  rubbed  up  and  shaken  with  one  part  of  bleaching 
powder  and  left  at  rest,  it  will  be  seen  that  even  after  some  four 
or  five  hours  a  layer  of  clean  and  limpid  oil  separates  and  floats 
at  the  top  and  surface  of  the  mixture,  which  layer  is,  if  the  oils 
operated  upon  are  pure,  at  least  half  the  bulk  of  the  original 
