40         Flaxseed  Adulterated  with  Mineral  Oil.    { A ^^yfih4rm' 
practised.  This  consisted  in  expressing  the  natural  fixed  oil  from 
the  crushed  seed,  and  triturating  the  resulting  cake  with  petroleum 
oil  of  about  the  same  density  as  linseed  oil.  Such  a  mixture  was 
then  placed  on  the  market  as  "  pure  crushed  flaxseed."  Following 
closely  upon  this,  the  writer  was  told  that  considerable  of  this 
mineral  oil  adulterated  flaxseed  meal  was  being  handled  in  our 
markets.  An  investigation  was  immediately  made,  and  it  was  found 
that  the  report  was  well  founded,  as  the  following  results  will  show. 
A  sample  of  ground  flaxseed  was  secured  and  the  per  cent,  of 
oil  estimated  by  exhausting  it  with  carbon  disulphide  in  the  usual 
way.  This  indicated  the  presence  of  35.5  per  cent,  of  fixed  oil, 
which  is  good  for  this  product.  It  is,  however,  not  more  than  a 
high  grade  flaxseed  usually  contains,  but  physically  the  meal  was 
abnormally  oily,  and  possessed  a  foreign  odor  and  taste.  The  word 
"  meal "  as  used  here  means  pure  ground  flaxseed  and  not  the  flax- 
seed meal  from  which  the  oil  has  been  expressed.  An  examination 
of  the  extracted  oil  showed  that  there  was  an  undue  amount  of 
unsaponifiable  matter  present.  A  considerable  quantity  of  the 
above  ground  flaxseed  was  then  secured,  one  portion  exhausted  by 
means  of  pure  ether;  from  another  portion  the  oil  was  removed  by 
hydraulic  pressure,  and  a  third  portion  was  reserved  for  future  use. 
The  oil  obtained  by  hydraulic  pressure,  of  which  a  sample  is  sub- 
mitted, is  highly  fluorescent,  dark  in  color,  and  abnormal  of  odor. 
Pure  raw  linseed  oil  expressed  in  the  cold  (as  the  above  was) 
possesses  a  golden  yellow  color,  while  that  obtained  at  a  higher 
temperature  is  of  a  brownish  yellow  hue,  but  none  has  ever  been 
reported  as  being  fluorescent. 
On  examining  the  above  expressed  oil  the  following  data  were 
obtained  :  Specific  gravity  at  150  C,  0  9055  (normal  specific  gravity, 
0-930-0.940) ;  acid  number,  6  (not  abnormal) ;  saponification  num- 
ber, 99  7  (normal  variation,  187-200). 
The  oil  extracted  by  means  of  the  ether  possessed  the  same 
abnormal  physical  appearance  as  the  expressed  oil,  and  an  exami- 
nation of  it  gave  the  following  results:  Specific  gravity  at  150  C, 
0  9039;  acid  number,  8-6;  saponification  number,  104-1. 
The  iodine  number  was  not  taken  in  either  of  these  oils,  because 
the  observed  results  so  overwhelmingly  indicated  the  presence  of 
mineral  oil  that  it  was  not  deemed  necessary. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  mineral  oil  must  have  been  added  to 
