the woods in the spring, and is white in all its parts. It is supposed to be very poisonous. FIG. 7. "Fiery" tube Mushroom (Boletus piperatus). One of the smaller Boleti. then boil the vinegar, adding to each quart 2 ounces of salt, half a nutmeg grated, a drachm of mace, and an ounce of white peppercorns. Put the mushrooms into the vinegar for ten minutes over to small jars, taking care that the t 8 the woods in the spring, and is white in all its parts. It is supposed to be very poisonous. FIG. 7. "Fiery" tube Mushroom (Boletus piperatus). One of the smaller Boleti. Taste, highly acrid; grows in woods; it is probably dangerous; never attains a large size. FIG. 8. "Fly" Mushroom (Agaricus (Amanita) muscarius). This species, allied to the perfectly wholesome red-fleshed mushroom, Amanita rubescens, is a bright yellow just beneath the skin, the rest is white. It is usually a bright scarlet on top, sometimes a deep yellow or orange. Few species can exceed it in beauty. It grows in some places in such profusion as to make the very ground scarlet. Found in birch and pine woods. FIG. 9. Ruddy-Milk" Mushroom (Lactarius rufus). Pileus fleshy, umbonate, at length funnel shaped, dry, zoneless, dark rufous; stem stuffed, rufous; gills crowded, ocherous and rufous. On bruising the gills a white milk exudes which is extremely acrid and corrosive, a distinguishing mark. FIG. 10. Fiery Milk" Mushroom (Lactarius piperatus). So called from the powerfully acrid milk which it contains, white and abundant. When the milk is placed on the lips or tongue it produces the sensation of scalding or searing with a hot iron. Color white, inclining to cream; flesh firm and solid. Found in dry woods. FIG. 11. "Bitter" Tube Mushroom (Boletus felleus). This mushroom is rare. Pileus is soft, smooth, brown, inclining to reddish grey; stem solid above, attenuated, reticulated; tubes or pores angular, flesh color, as well as the fleshy substance of the pileus when broken. The flesh is very bitter. FIG. 12. Fetid Wood-Witch" (Phallus impudicus). Had not this species been known to have been eaten it would be hardly necessary to have referred to it. Flies appear to relish it and devour it greedily. It is offensive and dangerous. BUTTER AND FATS. ORIGINAL MICROSCOPIC INVESTIGATIONS. In my early microscopic observations relating to butter and other fats I recommended that, in order to procure highly crystallized fats suitable for microscopic test objects, each fat should be heated to a temperature of 212° F., for one minute, strained to remove tissue, etc., and allowed to cool slowly. I now find that the fat should be heated, say over the flame of a spirit lamp in a porcelain basin, until it begins to fume, no more, no less, and allowed to cool slowly in the same vessel in which it is melted. Not less than 2 ounces of fat should be melted for each experiment. Hard fats, such as beef fat, in order to obtain well defined crystallization, should be treated as follows: Melt in a porcelain basin 2 ounces of pure fresh beef fat free from tissue, heat to the fuming point; remove from the flame at once, allow it to cool slowly until it becomes semisolid; at this juncture add to it 1 ounce of sweet oil and mix; then allow it to cool slowly in a temperature of about 75° F. If this process is strictly followed larger and better defined groups of crystals common to beef fat will be obtained than are produced by my original method. PLATE VI represents the general characteristics of the crystalline groupings of "butter and fats" when subjected to the above treatment. For the sake of convenience the different figures are separated by lines defining small squares on the plate. FIG. 1. Pure lard crystals viewed by plain light. Their arrangement is that of an aggregation of needle-like crystals proceeding from a common center. FIG. 2. The same viewed with polarized light, sometimes faintly showing a black cross. FIG. 3. Oleo crystals viewed by plain light. These are aggregations of branched crystals, color faint, requiring high powers, say × 500, to discern their delicate tracery, which closely resembles the crystalline arrangement of butter by plain light. FIG. 4. The same object viewed by polarized light. The branchings are not as visible and the black cross is reflected. Such groupings average about .003 of an inch in diameter. FIG. 5. A group of stearin crystals embedded in palmitin, as seen by polarized light. This fairly represents the crystalline arrangement of commercial stearin. The crystals of stearin appear vividly white under polarized light. FIG. 6 represents the same group of crystals by plain light. FIG. 7 represents a mixture of lard and stearin-50 per cent of each-by plain light. FIG. 8. The same compound by polarized light. FIG. 9 represents a compound of oleo and stearin-50 per cent of each-by plain light. FIG. 10. Oleo and stearin by polarized light. The large, central, well-defined branchings represent the stearin. They appear very brilliant in contrast with the translucent mass of palmitin in which they are embedded. In this case the black cross is always wanting. The small globose bodies at the right-hand lower corner of the field are the usual forms of oleo crystallization viewed by polarized light. FIG. 11. Compound of stearin and butter-50 per cent of each-by plain light. The central figure represents the stearin poorly. FIG. 12. The same by polarized light. In this case the branchings of the stearin are very readily observed by polarized light, even with low powers. The stearin largely occupies the field, embedded in the palmitin. In the lower right-hand corner a small mass of crystallized butter is represented which has crystallized apart from the stearin. FIG. 13. Compound of lard and butter. This combination consists mostly of palmitin, the principal fat of lard, and exhibits delicately branched crystals common to butter, viewed by plain light. FIG. 14. Same compound viewed by polarized light. A faint black cross is observed. Frequently in such cases a bright rosette-like crystal, or rather aggregation of crystals, is seen, which I consider consists of stearin. With regard to the crystallization of stearin, so as to obtain uniform results, nothing is more simple. I have experimented with the stearin of lard, cotton-seed oil, beef and mutton tallow. The stearine crystal under the microscope with polarized light has distinctive characteristics, whether seen as mere specks or as branching forms. Its brilliancy exceeds that of al other fats under polarized light. FIG. 15. Butter crystals by plain light. FIG. 16. Butter crystals by polarized light. FIG. 17. Butter crystals showing the rosette-like form in center, which I consider represents the natural stearin of butter which has crystallized apart from the palmitin of the butter. FIG. 18 represents a crystallization of butter which I have frequently met with in butter that has been exposed previously to high atmospheric temperatures; but if such a sample is again heated to the fuming point, as already described, then slowly cooled, and viewed with polarized light the globose forms will again appear as in Fig. 16, changing in several days to those of Fig. 17, and again changing to those represented by Fig. 18. Ultimately they take the forms represented in Figs. 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30. FIG. 19. Butter and its stearin represented. Stearin of pure butter is obtained by compression, as follows: Place, say, 2 ounces of pure, fresh butter upon several sheets of thick bibulous paper. After several days, most of the oil will be absorbed, remove the butter with a pall t knife and press it between several folds of absorbent paper by means of a common letter press, thus removing the remaining oil and some of the palmitin. Place the solid mass thus obtained in a porcelain capsule over the flame of a spirit lamp and bring it to the fuming point. Then remove it from the fire and strain out the casein, adding, when cooled to a semifluid condition, about one third of its weight in sweet oil. When quite cool examine a portion under the microscope with polarized light, using powers of × 100, turning the polarizer so as to have a dark background, when the crystallized form of stearin will be observed as shown by Fig. 19; the stearin in this case has relatively increased from loss of palmitin and its natural oil in the process of compression and absorption. FIG. 20. Palmitin-viewed by plain light, x 500. FIG. 21. Palmitin and butter. FIGS. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36 represent varied views ofold oleomargarine. Having described the microscopical characteristics of these commercial fats, any microscopist by the aid of Plate VI may soon become. able to distinguish pure fat from that which has been adulterated. ORIGINAL IN FOOD FATS, WITH MICROSCOPIC RESEARCHES SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LARD AND OLEO COMPOUNDS, SUGGESTED BY RECENT DISCLOSURES IN LARD ADULTERATION (PLAIN LIGHT) (POLARIZED LIGHT) (PLAIN LIGHT) (POLARIZED LIGHT) (POLARIZED LIGHT) (PLAIN LIGHT) 2 3 5 6 LARD & STEARIN LARD & STEARIN OLEO & STEARIN OLEO & STEARIN STEARIN & BUTTER STEARIN & BUTTER (PLAIN LIGHT) (POLARIZED LIGHT) (PLAIN LIGHT) (POLARIZED LIGHT) (PLAIN LIGHT) (POLARIZED LIGHT) 7 8 9 10 12 |