* 
SPONTANEOUS  SAPONIFICATION  OF  OILS  IN  SEEDS.  353 
acids,  and  if  they  be  old,  it  almost  always  happens  that  they  no 
longer  contain  oil,  this  having  become  entirely  acidified.  It 
would  be  interesting,  in  connection  with  this  complete  transfor- 
mation of  the  neutral  fatty  matters  into  acids,  to  ascertain  their 
influence  in  the  alimentation  of  cattle,  and  to  follow  it  from  the 
commencement  of  this  spontaneous  saponification,  that  is  to  say, 
from  the  moment  when  the  seed  is  crushed  to  the  period  of  com- 
plete acidification.  The  oil-cakes  contain,  on  an  average,  10 
per  cent,  of  fatty  matters,  and  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the 
neutral  or  acid  state  of  these  is  a  matter  of  indifference  in  the 
alimentation  of  animals. 
When  oleagineous  seeds  are  reduced  to  powder,  and  moistened 
with  water,  putrefaction  commences  in  a  few  days,  and  they  then 
exhale  a  fetid  and  strongly  ammoniacal  odor.  Far  from  con- 
taining more  fatty  acids  than  seeds  simply  crushed,  they  contain 
a  good  deal  less  ;  and  it  appears  that  the  ferment,  or  the  organic 
matter,  whatever  it  may  be,  that  fulfils  its  office,  is  destroyed, 
and  ceases  to  act  upon  the  neutral  oils.  I  have  in  vain  endea- 
vored to  isolate  this  matter. 
In  the  course  of  my  researches  I  have  ascertained  that  the 
sugar  which  is  contained  in  considerable  quantity  in  walnuts, 
nuts,  and  sweet  and  bitter  almonds,  is  identical  with  cane-sugar., 
and  that  these  seeds  contained  no  trace  of  glucose.  Nearly  the 
whole  of  the  sugar  remains  in  the  cakes  after  the  oil  has  been  se- 
parated by  expression.  It  is  so  abundant  in  the  cake  of  the 
Walnut,  that  when  the  latter  is  suspended  in  water,  with  a  little 
yeast,  an  active  fermentation  is  set  up  in  the  mixture  in  a  few 
minutes,  and  this  gives  rise  to  a  considerable  quantity  of  alcohol, 
which  may  be  readily  separated  by  distillation. 
In  the  determination  of  the  proportion  of  fatty  acids  mixed 
with  the  oils,  it  is  not  sufficient  to  treat  the  mixture  with  absolute 
alcohol ;  this  would  lead  to  the  most  serious  errors.  I  have,  in 
fact,  ascertained  that  in  the  presence  of  the  fatty  acids  the  neu- 
tral oils  are  able  to  dissolve  in  alcohol.  When  alcohol  is  mixed 
with  oil,  the  addition  of  oleic  acid  to  the  mixture  causes  the  so-, 
lution  of  the  latter  ;  and  if  the  oleic  acid  be  in  great  excess  in 
proportion  to  the  oil,  the  addition  of  fresh  alcohol  produces  no 
turbidity  in  the  mixture. 
I  have  made  an  experiment  upon  saponification,  which  I  shall 
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