## BOGUS BUTTER.

*(Continued from page 81.)*

other witness said that a friend who worked in an oleomargarine factory, had his hands poisoned and died a year afterwards, as was intimated, from the effects of the poison. Another witness, Dr. H. A. Pooler, said he was convinced from observations in his practice that the use of oleomargarine was injurious. The nitric acid used in its manufacture could not be washed out, and to it he ascribed a long train of digestive troubles. He read quotations from medical authorities showing that cotton-seed oil was a powerful emenagogue, and was used in the South almost universally for the purpose. During the past five years the number of still-births in New York city, he said, had increased in startling proportions, and he attributed this state of facts to the increased consumption of oleomargarine. Manufacturers of oleomargarine who were present put in a general denial of these statements, one of them testifying that only an ounce of nitric acid was mixed with 200 gallons of water; that the butterine was placed in this mixture to bleach; that afterwards it was washed and re-washed in the coldest water, until finally there could scarcely be as much nitric acid in pounds of butterine as is often given in a single dose as medicine. Later on the manufacturers introduced "expert" evidence to show that Dr. Pooler's testimony about cotton-seed oil and nitric acid was altogether fallacious and untrustworthy. Employés from the oleomargarine factories were also produced to say that their health was perfect and that their families did not grow thin from eating large quantities of bogus butter. But in spite of all this testimony of paid "experts" and of dependent employés, the manufacturers failed to convince the committee or the public that the "butter" which they manufacture is not adulterated, or that the processes by which it is made are cleanly, pure or safe. It is expected that the committee will report a law prohibiting the sale of

any kind of imitation of butter as butter, and providing that no wholesale or retail dealer shall, under heavy penalties and fines, be allowed to sell any imitation of butter without stating what said article is. As it seems to us, the law should go further than this and provide for a commission whose duty it would be to license the manufacturers of, and dealers in, oleomargarine, to have a supervision of its manufacture, and to detect and report violations of the law for the action of the criminal authorities.